Addressing apprenticeship delivery  

Kat Moss, chairman of the LEEA board, explains the challenges behind delivering the Level 3 Lifting Equipment Technician apprenticeship standard in England from her view as chairman of the trailblazer group, and why the Association will be looking at ways to make it easier to access.

I have been working on developing the Apprenticeship Standard for over two years now, with the first trailblazer meeting being held in March 2019. When I first became involved, the government was adamant that the process would be smooth and supportive of employers. In reality, however, it has been time consuming and presented many challenges: from developing the standard with other employers on the trailblazer, to explaining the intricacies of the industry to stakeholders, working with training providers to have them sign up and shape their delivery offer to be realistic, and engaging with end point assessment organisations who will validate the expertise of apprenticeship students. This is an important message that I will feed back to government.

I remain absolutely committed to apprenticeships because they are a clear and obvious path by which we can attract and develop new recruits into our industry.  I am hugely supportive of a government backed and funded qualification that is created by, and responds to, the needs of industry. I love the idea that those of us working in the real world can state what we want to see in new recruits and that funders and government accredited providers will deliver on our wishes. However, the system needs a body that supports employers in delivering the above.

That being said, we have a live standard, an end point assessor ready to work with our students and providers willing to deliver. However, we have heard reports that some providers approached to deliver our standard have instead looked to start learners on generic engineering apprenticeships.  Also, we know that geography and logistics make it difficult for our member companies to engage with broadly regional providers that offer only day release schemes, rather than block training. We now need to make access to the apprenticeship easier, so a company seeking an apprentice can ask a local training provider and have them take it from there.

I’m proud that we have the pathway open. We have worked very hard to put in place all the things necessary for the apprenticeship to be taken up right now. These few remaining rough edges now need to be smoothed out. I am pleased, therefore, to announce that LEEA is fully engaged in developing plans to address local training provision. Our industry deserves an apprenticeship that is not only outstanding but is also easy to access.

For any questions or comments on the apprenticeship, contact k.moss@catenais.co.uk k.moss@catenais.co.ukand ross.moloney@leeaint.com.