Subscribe to Our Newsletter
It’s National Apprenticeship week here in the UK – it’s a period of time where we focus on the apprenticeship system and celebrate the positive impact that apprenticeships have on businesses, communities, and most of all, the people who enrol on them. The theme for 2022 is ‘Building the Future’, and it’s all about reflecting on how apprenticeships can foster the skills and the knowledge that an individual might need for their career, and developing a vocationally-trained, talented workforce that’s equipped with a future-ready skill set.
People with dyslexia or literacy differences sometimes turn to apprenticeships and vocational training because they often have less weighting towards written style assessments that they might struggled with or have found stressful in school. They’re also seen as a great way for people who excel in non-traditional learning environments to kick off a technical career, and although there has been some controversy in recent months about the proposed transition from the BTEC system to the new T-Level system, vocational training systems are seen as a great way of opening up the world of higher education and industry for people who might not have felt that A-Levels were right for them.
However this National Apprenticeship Week, MENCAP, the UK’s leading learning disability charity is calling on the Department for Education to take another look at the regulations that surround the current apprenticeship system. Their research has highlighted that the majority of apprenticeship employers and training providers believe that the criteria for people with a learning disability or difficulty to qualify for the flexibilities set out in the ‘Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England’ are too restrictive. The vast majority of respondents (a huge 96%) agree that people with a learning disability or difficulty should qualify for adjusted minimum standards based on a cognitive assessment as opposed to the current system, where they are assessed under the evidence of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
MENCAP have also commented that 71% of the respondents to their survey described the current literacy and numeracy requirements as an unnecessary barrier for people who want to take on an apprenticeship, and 92% of employers report that they’d be willing to have an apprentice with skills assessed under an adjusted standard.
In response to this data, MENCAP have set out a series of recommendations in a report that promotes the expansion of the adjusted minimums to people with a learning difficulty or disability. With many sectors facing somewhat of a recruitment crisis, the easing of these restrictions may be a positive force in the jobs market and open the door to employment and learning to some people for whom it may otherwise have remained closed. In the event that no change is made, it’s also suggested that by MENCAP that the inequalities gap may have chance to further widen, and the current barriers that people with a learning disability or difference face may become even harder to overcome.
You can find out more about MENCAP’s study here, at their website – and don’t forget to check out National Apprenticeship Week online at the .GOV portal.
