NAS Chief Executive welcomes new measures to further enhance the quality of Apprenticeships

[Ryan]

Simon Waugh, Chief Executive, National Apprenticeship Service welcomes new measures, announced by John Hayes on 19 December 2011, to help assure that every Apprenticeship delivers world class training for learners and businesses.

Key changes:

• From August 2012, all Apprenticeships for 16-18 year olds must last for at least 12 months.
• NAS will also assess whether the requirement for Apprenticeships to last for at least 12 months should extend to older apprentices, taking into account they will often start from a higher base.
• NAS will require every Apprenticeship to deliver significant new learning that they are not merely about the accreditation of existing knowledge and experience.
• The Skills Funding Agency will tighten contracts to allow for public money to be immediately withdrawn from training providers where training fails to meet the required quality standards.

What does everything think of the changes? It's a shame about changing the length of time an apprenticeship can last (now 12 months) as I know a lot of people who have gone into an apprenticeship purely because they found a 6 month course etc.