In the first of two blogs about Supporting Education Group’s submission to the Commons Select Committee’s inquiry on further education and skills, Tracy Clement outlines the key issues.
If the UK is going for growth as the government insists, then the country’s severe skills shortages in early years and schools need to be addressed urgently.
The skills problem, manifested most clearly in ongoing shortages in teachers and support staff, has spurred a Commons Education Committee inquiry on further education and skills, to determine how the post-16 education system can provide better vocational and skills-based learning and qualifications.
The inquiry has now closed and is considering the evidence, and Supporting Education Group’s submission was one of the contributors.
Here I’ll set out the issues as we see them, before going on to detail our recommendations in the second blog.
The UK faces a critical shortage of skilled professionals in early years education and school teaching, a challenge that threatens not only the stability of the education workforce but also the quality of provision for children and young people. The government has committed to recruiting 6,500 new teachers and expanding childcare provision, yet there are plenty of structural barriers in the way.
Low pay and poor retention rates in early years settings remain big obstacles to workforce stability. Unlike schoolteachers, early years professionals receive far lower wages despite the critical nature of their work, resulting in high attrition rates as staff leave for better-paying roles in other sectors.
Apprenticeships are an effective solution, but the schools sector remains significantly behind in their uptake compared to other industries, despite the critical role apprenticeships can play in addressing workforce shortages.
One of the major reasons is the low take up of the Apprenticeship Levy in schools and settings where it is applicable. Many trusts and local authorities fail to fully access or allocate levy funds towards workforce training, often because they are unsure about eligibility criteria and bureaucratic processes. This means that millions in unspent levy funds go back to the Treasury each year, instead of being reinvested into staff training, career progression and recruitment initiatives.
But the bigger issue is that most early years providers are not levy-paying employers. As SMEs, they don’t meet the financial threshold required to contribute to the levy, meaning they receive no direct budget for apprenticeship training. This leaves most schools and nurseries without the financial resources to invest in staff development while larger employers can access levy funding.
The result is the creation of “apprenticeship deserts” across the country, where small employers – despite facing some of the worst workforce shortages – lack the means to hire or train apprentices.
In theory, these smaller providers can apply for levy transfer funding from larger organisations, but administrative burdens, complex eligibility criteria and the absence of dedicated support make this process inaccessible. Unlike large businesses, many schools and early years providers do not have HR or finance teams equipped to navigate the system, resulting in low engagement with apprenticeships despite an acute need for skilled staff.
Collaboration is clearly needed in workforce planning, but FE providers, local authorities and employers often operate in isolation. This can limit the effectiveness of apprenticeships in addressing the skills shortage in education and early years.
There has been some progress through partnerships between training providers and employers, but barriers remain. These include a policy bias towards classroom-based learning and the slow and inconsistent approach of local authorities in processing apprenticeship approvals.
The lack of standardisation across local authorities compounds this issue. A training provider working across multiple local authority areas may have to comply with entirely different sets of rules and approval mechanisms for each LA, creating inefficiencies, additional costs and delays in getting apprentices enrolled. This prevents providers from scaling their programmes effectively, limiting apprenticeship uptake at a time when the education and early years sectors urgently need skilled professionals.
There’s also confusion among schools, MATs and early years providers about apprenticeship funding and workforce development strategies. Schools continue to see apprenticeships as a cost rather than an investment, often failing to realise that they can be used to upskill existing staff at all career stages, not just as an entry-level recruitment tool.
From our experience we can see that structured career development – from Level 2 to Level 6 apprenticeships – improves workforce retention and professional standards. 60% of apprentices require additional learning support, and Supporting Education Group’s intervention has increased our Functional Skills pass rates from 33% to 74%. It’s strong evidence, but policy uncertainty around funding models has deterred providers from expanding such pathways.