Construction needs a ‘UCAS-style system’ for apprenticeships

Construction careers are incredibly rewarding – few professions can compete with the opportunities for growth and job satisfaction that our sector boasts.

Sadly, though, this message isn’t getting through to young people.

In 2022, City & Guilds research found that only 6% of 18 to 24-year-olds saw the sector as somewhere they would like to work, and 34% were put off because they felt they didn’t have the right skills.

We desperately need a strategy to tackle the widening skills crater.

Fortunately, the government has taken the first steps towards confronting the issue. Last July, prime minister Kier Starmer unveiled the Skills England initiative, pitching it as the fix to the country’s skills woes.

The initiative is set to establish a taskforce, responsible for identifying problem areas and finding solutions, and provide employers with more flexibility when using the apprenticeship levy.

I completely agree that apprenticeship reform is the answer, but I can’t help but feel that the government needs to be bolder.

I would point ministers to the UK’s top-quality universities, and the bodies and systems that facilitate those universities.

If we’re going to inspire young people to take up apprenticeships and help firms bring them on board, we need to elevate the courses and untangle the complicated application process.

We need a UCAS-style system for vocational courses. A ‘VCAS’, if you will.

Currently, employers battle to find the right training provider for them, and prospective students are faced with a messy maze of alternative application sites when searching for the right course.

If we adopted a UCAS-style approach and hosted the entire apprenticeship process on one slick platform, I’m willing to bet we’d see apprenticeship starts skyrocket.

VCAS could be a one-stop-shop for finding training providers, registering vacancies, applying for apprenticeships, and the ongoing management of the courses.

Employers would be encouraged to submit the training programmes and extra-curricular support they’re offering, and apprentices could log their attendance and track their progress toward key performance indicators. All parties would be kept accountable.

To ensure employers are fully committed, they should be required to submit information on who is running the training and how they will offer longer-term career guidance to help students find pathways into work.

VCAS would stop employers who aren’t willing to take full responsibility and register a detailed training curriculum from accessing levy funding, ensuring that no money is wasted.

Alongside the VCAS platform, we could also overhaul the apprenticeship funding model.

At the moment, employers with a payroll of more than £3 million pay into the levy pot each year.

Then, businesses of all shapes and sizes are supposed to be able to use the funding to access apprenticeship courses.

But in practice it’s far from smooth sailing. Employers are bogged down by admin and a complicated system, and any unspent money – approximately £1 billion each year, according to data from the London Progression Collaboration – ends up in the Treasury’s pocket.

But what if we put this funding to better use, rolling out government-led loans to cover the cost of uniforms, tools and travel, for example?

By taking a student finance-style approach, we could take some of the burden off employers and apprentices and add weight to the courses, making them more attractive to young people.

These loans could be split between the two parties, with employers responsible for 80% of the loan and students 20%.

And the pressure on the employer needn’t be overwhelming, as we could finally put the levy to good use, with employers drawing from it to cover their share.

The levy could fully cover the costs of apprenticeship training, too, making the courses far more attractive for employers and allowing them to fully maximise the funding.

It is possible to supercharge apprentice starts and find the skills we are missing.

In many ways, we already have the blueprint. The UK possesses some of the best universities in the world, in part because we have the bodies and systems we need whirring away in the background.

If we adopt a similar approach to UCAS and student finance when it comes to our apprenticeship schemes, we could drive employers and young people to the courses, increase pass rates and crucially build a workforce that will push the country and the construction industry toward long-term success.

• Haman Manak is procurement director at Stanmore and director at Manak Homes.