Disadvantaged Apprentices - Again!

An apprentice cannot progress to the final assessment of their apprenticeship until they have achieved their functional skills qualification at the minimum level prescribed by their programme. Every month thousands more apprentices are going out of funding because they can't undertake their functional skills exams. There are a number of reasons:

• most awarding organisations don't have a full online solution, so many learners have no way (during lockdown, but also when respecting safe working and social distancing) to access functional skills testing. The result for these people is that they cannot progress to the end point assessment of their apprenticeship, even if they are perfectly prepared and their employer and trainer believe them to be ready. The consequence for apprentices is that many drop out without their qualifications, others will end up completing later than they should and perhaps with a lower grade. The learner runs out of funding, and the training provider is left with the choice of continuing to support them at their own cost (unsustainable in the long term), or stopping their support (morally unacceptable).
• some awarding organisations claim to have an online solution, but the majority of these require software to be loaded onto a relatively high specification laptop. This is not viable for most apprentices.
• only a very small number of awarding organisations have a fully web based solution, but this requires a laptop and a reliable internet service. Many apprentices, and most concerningly the lowest paid and most disadvantaged, do not have access to such facilities.

Given the unprecedented times in which we are all operating, extreme measures need to be taken. We recognise that the government was burnt by the fiasco of centre assessed grading in schools, but a similar process in work based learning led to fewer than 0.5% of grades being challenged. It worked. 

A simple solution to the thousands of apprentices who cannot take their functional skills tests would be to allow centre assessed grades for functional skills throughout this pandemic, thus allowing apprenticeships to progress, to support themselves and their families and to continue with their careers. For this to happen, Gavin Williamson needs to tell Ofqual to tell the awarding organisations to do this, just as he did in the first lockdown. Please, if you care about apprentices and apprenticeships, urge him to do so in order that apprentices do not suffer unnecessarily. Thank you.