Correspondence

Business Update - Issue 48 (September 2019)

Updated 1 November 2021

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You can read more about apprenticeships on GOV.UK.

You can find the latest from ESFA in our weekly newsletter, ESFA Update.

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1. Get ready for Brexit

The UK is leaving the EU on 31 October 2019. Find out how to prepare your business.

The government has guaranteed that in the event of leaving the EU without a deal, all those who are resident in the UK before the UK leaves the EU will be able to stay.

Employers should ensure that their employees, including apprentices, who are EU/EEA or Swiss citizens living in the UK are aware that they and their family members will need to apply for settled or pre-settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme in order to secure their rights. Many of your employees will have already applied to the EU Settlement Scheme, or be in the process of doing so. But if they haven’t, they still have until 31 December 2020 to do so (30 June 2021 if the UK leaves with a deal). Use the toolkit for employers to help your employees.

Irish citizens’ right to live in the UK will not change when the UK leaves the EU. Irish citizens do not need to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme, but their family members who are not Irish or British citizens will need to do so.

All EU/EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members starting an apprenticeship in England in the 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 academic years will remain eligible for apprenticeship funding. The funding rules will be updated to reflect this.

Guidance is also available for FE and apprenticeship providers and businesses employing apprentices on how to prepare for Brexit.

2. National Apprenticeship Awards 2019 regional winners announced

National Apprenticeship Awards 2019 regional winners have been announced, with winners from a wide range of industries and occupations now progressing to the national stage of the National Apprenticeship Awards 2019.

Now in their 16th year, the National Apprenticeship Awards showcase the diverse and growing range of sectors engaged with apprenticeships, whilst celebrating the achievements of outstanding apprentices, apprentice employers and individuals to inspire others to follow in their footsteps and champion apprenticeships across England.

The awards were open to apprentices, individuals who promote apprenticeships and employers of all sizes from all sectors. Categories were refreshed in 2018, creating additional opportunities for entrants to demonstrate the impact apprenticeships have made to individual’s lives and their workplaces. Those recognised as regional winners are apprenticeship exemplars, highlighting best practice across recruitment excellence, high-quality training practices, diversity and career progression.

3. Give us your views of apprenticeships!

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the institute) has begun a programme of reviews, to ensure its apprenticeship standards and occupational maps are the best that they can be.

These reviews, known as route reviews, will ensure the routes concerned accurately reflect all occupations suitable for technical education, and identify route-specific principles to apply to the apprenticeships in them. They will also review some of the oldest apprenticeship standards in the routes, as well as those with known quality issues.

The route reviews will be employer-led and consultative, which is why each one kicks off with a public consultation. The institute will continue to engage with employers throughout, to ensure the recommendations are based on a full range of views.

The route reviews underway are for the following routes:

4. New apprenticeship service autumn webinar programme

We are pleased to announce a new autumn webinar programme for October to December 2019. All webinars are hosted by subject matter experts to help service users to understand more about the apprenticeship service and new service developments.

Webinars are aimed at employers, training providers, end-point assessment organisations, membership/representative organisations and any organisations or individuals with an interest in the apprenticeship service.

Attendees will have the opportunity to ask experts questions in a live Q&A and take part in interactive polls.

Topics include:

  • service development updates
  • apprenticeship eligibility
  • an end-point assessment (EPA) programme with guidance for employers and providers
  • recording end-point assessment activity in the ILR (Individualised Learner Records)
  • end-point assessment organisations: how to register

The apprenticeship service webinar programme first launched in November 2018 and has been extremely successful, with over 30 webinars delivered to over 2000 attendees. You can watch all webinar recordings on esfagovuk.

This autumn, all webinars will be hosted on a new platform, GoToWebinar, providing an improved, more intuitive webinar experience, with additional features such as extra capacity. This will ensure as many attendees as possible can join.

Sign up now and follow @ESFAdigital on Twitter.

5. Apprenticeship assessment service updates

The apprenticeship assessment service has been updated to include an application programming interface (API) that will allow users to record the outcome of end-point assessments that have been carried out. This new feature offers much more flexibility when recording end-point assessment outcomes.

The assessment service has also been updated to enable end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) with user permissions to edit their organisation’s details on the ‘Register of end-point assessment organisations’. Users can update – contact name, organisation telephone number, organisation address, organisation email address, organisation website address.

6. The Institute for Apprentices and Technical Education employer summit: some spaces left!

Every year, the Institute for Apprentices and Technical Education holds an employer summit to bring together trailblazer groups and T Level panel members from across the country.

The aim of the summit is for employers from the apprenticeship and technical education landscape to share thinking and expertise, and to explore how the institute will work with employers as it shifts in focus from creation to revision, review and maintenance of apprenticeship standards and T Level qualifications.

This year’s event is taking place on Thursday 7 November, 10am to 3.30pm, at the ICC, in Birmingham. It is aimed at trailblazer groups whose apprenticeship standards are already approved, as well as those currently working on new standards in development. It is also for T Level panel chairs and members who have recently completed outline content.

If this is you, please register through the institute’s website. However, there are limited spaces left and they’re allocated on a first come, first served basis.

With an agenda of plenary, route discussions and a range of workshops, it promises to be an informative, engaging and rewarding day.

7. The course directory is changing

The National Careers Service’s course directory is changing to make it easier for providers to upload their information.

The course directory is a database comprising records of learning opportunities for people over the age of 16 delivered by all providers contracted with Department for Education. The courses are displayed through find a course, find apprenticeship training and other public and private sector websites. This enables citizens to look for different types of learning in their area and generates referrals to providers across the country.

Providers and superusers are being contacted to let them know when changes will be happening and to help them manage the changes to their information.

If you have any questions or want to find out who your registered superuser is, please contact the support team by:

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