Jamie McVey of LMP on why apprenticeship levy funding could have a transformative impact on the recruitment and training of TAs as SEND pressures increase.
Big changes are afoot for the Apprenticeship Levy this year.
The policymakers who are ringing in those changes – it will become the Growth and Skills Levy and should include greater flexibility in how levy money can be spent – will be hoping that the transformation will fulfil their aim to make training and development more accessible and impactful for businesses and organisations of all sizes, including trusts and schools.
Change is probably needed. The fact is that not enough trusts and schools are taking advantage of what is a highly cost-effective way of funding the skilling up of new and established staff. Although the apprenticeship levy has been available since 2017, it has remained under-used by trusts and schools, with just 22% of the £180 million pounds paid into the levy by trusts and schools every year used. Some trusts don’t use their levy pot at all. The levy has been criticised as over complex and rigid but there’s been a lack of awareness too.
If those funds aren’t drawn on – the money can currently be used only for apprenticeship training, but the Growth and Skills Levy is likely to include short courses as well – it goes back into the Treasury’s coffers.
That’s frustrating when you consider the very real budget and staffing concerns of schools up and down the country for which levy-funded apprenticeship programmes could offer a cost-effective solution. That pressure has been building in recent years because of the enormous growth in SEND needs.
In these circumstances, schools and trusts want to recruit staff who can give teachers the capacity they need to better support the needs of SEND pupils. Well trained and motivated teaching assistants can be a part of that solution.
A lot of teaching assistants in schools traditionally might start as a volunteer and then get a job as a teaching assistant at the school with little or no formal training. With the amount of SEND needs drastically increasing since covid, these teaching assistants are now supporting small groups of learners with quite high needs, but without the training needed. Add into the mix the availability of roles outside the education sector that are often more flexible and the result can be retention and recruitment problems.
The sector is really crying out for progression, opening a career pathway for those TAs that don’t yet have a degree and which also recognises the evolving role of TAs, who are no longer there just to support classroom activity.
TAs could play a key role in increasing a school’s capacity to support SEND pupils if they receive the professional development and clear career pathway they need to stay in the education sector. And apprenticeship funding could be the key to this.
The ever-rising demand for skilled up teaching assistants who can support SEND children has prompted us to introduce a new Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant programme. It’s one of several specialist apprenticeship programmes offered by Supporting Education Group training providers.
Our Level 5 programme offers learners the opportunity to specialise in a particular field of study such as SEND, social and emotional wellbeing, or specific curriculum provisions like early reading or EAL. And of course, it can be funded through the apprenticeship levy and its successor.
The programme is a significant development. It’s the first time there’s been a funded non-degree route option at level five for teaching assistants. There were hundreds of TAs on our first level 5 cohort and thousands on the waiting list, demonstrating what an appetite there is for this kind of professional development.
The creation of the Level 5 qualification moves us closer to being able to offer TAs a coherent career pathway for the first time, from entry level TA through to teaching. The next step is to look at creating a non-degree teaching apprenticeship route that will allow TAs to move on from that level five qualification.
It’s too early of course to see what impact the Level 5 qualification will have on TA retention but the omens are good if our level 3 TA SEND pathway apprenticeship is anything to go by. We believe this qualification has indeed helped with retention, equipping TAs with the skills and confidence they need to cope with the additional professional demands of supporting pupils with SEND.
Big changes are afoot for the Apprenticeship Levy, which I hope leads to more trusts and schools accessing funding for programmes that will make a real difference at a time when it has never been more needed.
Jamie McVey is a director at LMP Education and one of Supporting Education Group’s apprenticeships experts.