Schools could lose level 7 apprenticeship for senior staff

Labour plans to shake up the way training is funded could result in schools losing access to an apprenticeship route used to upskill senior leaders.

The Department for Education announced this week that it would be moving some level 7 apprenticeships – equivalent to a Master’s – outside the scope of levy funding.

“This will involve businesses funding more of their level 7 apprenticeships – equivalent to a Master’s degree and often accessed by older or already well-qualified employees – outside of the levy,” the government said.

Labour also plans to get rid of a rule requiring all apprenticeships to be a year long and will let employers spend some of the levy funding on other training, although what will be covered has not been set out.

Schools, trusts and councils with wages’ bills of more than £3 million have to pay into the levy at a rate of 0.5 per cent a year. In return they can draw down funding to pay for training for apprentices.

However, the lack of a good range of routes for school staff has led some schools to turn to a level 7 apprenticeship in senior leadership to upskill senior staff.

Captiva Learning offers various apprenticeships for school staff via the National College of Education (NCE), including the level 7 qualification.

‘A real headache’

David Cobb, its chief executive, said: “Although we still don’t know details of the amendments to the senior leader apprenticeship, it surely can’t be the intention of the Labour government to remove crucial professional development from public services.”

But he said the wider levy reforms were “broadly positive” for schools that struggled to spend their levy.

Analysis by the NCE suggests about £148 million of £187 million paid by schools is returned to the Treasury.

“Raising awareness in schools of the potential of the apprenticeship levy in developing highly skilled and stable staff teams remains the biggest challenge.”

Tom Richmond, a former government adviser, said courses such as the level 7 apprenticeship had “proved popular due to their flexibility and size”.

“On that basis, any future restrictions on such courses will present schools and trusts with a real headache.”

But he added that the size of level 7 courses was “not always useful if you want to send your employees on shorter and more targeted programmes to upskill or reskill them”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, the head of the ASCL leaders’ union, said it was “reasonable” to prioritise entry-level training in the apprenticeship levy.

But he said it was “unlikely” schools and colleges that used the senior leader apprenticeship would be “able to afford this level of training if levy funding is removed”.

“This must be taken into account by the government as part of this reform.”