The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) will launch a new programme to fill the void left after the funding for the government’s Future Apprenticeships Support Programme was pulled.
Announcing the move at its spring conference in Coventry, the AELP’s chief executive Mark Dawe said he was delighted to announce that from March the organisation would ensure all providers can continue to benefit from the services offered by the Future Apprenticeships service.
Mr Dawe said: “The primary reason that we have decided to create, manage and deliver a new programme alongside the AELP’s current programme offer is we recognise its inherent value to our members.”
‘Improve it further’
He added: “While developing the new programme, we have taken the opportunity to ensure that it meets the needs of our members and new providers even more effectively. We believe this is an excellent opportunity to take a successful programme and to build on it and improve it further so that providers can benefit from the highest quality service possible.”
The Future Apprenticeships Support Programme was launched to help managers, teachers, trainers, leaders and those involved in governance to make the transition from apprenticeship frameworks to delivery of the new standards.
It was funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and run by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), with the AELP as a leading partner.
A DfE spokesperson said: “The ETF was only ever going to be funded to deliver the transition period for our apprenticeship reforms. The funding will come to an end as planned at the end of the financial year.”
Alison Morris, director of sector development at the ETF, said: “We will be continuing to work with colleges, independent training providers and others in making sure apprenticeships continue to be delivered successfully. This will include new options, in addition to those we already have such as our free Future Apprenticeships Provider Toolkit, self-assessment tools for end-point assessors and a range of online resources.”
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