Swathes of agricultural apprenticeships could be scrapped because funding changes threaten to make them financially unviable, land-based colleges have warned.
Landex, the umbrella body for land-based colleges, has told TES that, even with the transitional protection for 16-18 apprentices that was announced in October, funding for agriculture apprenticeships will drop by as much as a quarter in May (see box, below).
Overall, the funding for 16-18 learners following land-based apprenticeships will be reduced by an average of 20 per cent, according to Landex, with the figure even higher for those following agriculture and land-based engineering at level 3.
Chris Moody, Landex chief executive, said that if businesses retained the £1,000 allocated as an “employer incentive” for each apprenticeship, the funding that colleges received for delivery and assessment would drop by around 40 per cent on average.
Colleges have said that they face losing huge sums of money as a result of the changes, which will make some provision unsustainable.
The new funding methodology does not recognise the specialist and high-cost nature of land-based provision for 16-18 learners, according to Landex.
“Most land-based employment is in micro-businesses, where lone working in potentially dangerous environments and with large machinery and animals is commonplace,” the organisation said in a statement. “In the agriculture industry, serious injuries and fatalities are currently eight times as high, per head of workforce, as they are in the construction industry. Consequently, much of the initial experience within an apprenticeship must be delivered off-site under close supervision by a college or other provider.”
This, Landex explained, is “inevitably high-cost and, unless apprenticeship frameworks are appropriately funded, it is unlikely that numbers will be maintained or expanded to meet current government targets”.
One-year programmes and scrapped apprenticeships
As a result, TES understands that some colleges are considering scrapping level 2 apprenticeships and instead offering one-year, full-time programmes including an extended period of work experience.
Meredydd David, principal of Reaseheath College in Cheshire, said that the institution stood to lose around £400,000 in funding.
“This makes apprenticeship delivery, especially in these areas, financially unviable as it would make a significant loss,” he added. “A reduction in the funding of this magnitude will mean that we will not be able to deliver the quality expected and needed by industry, and we will therefore have to seriously consider not enrolling apprentices at this rate and will find alternative programmes and funding routes for them. This is a major risk to the government in hitting its [3 million apprenticeships by 2020] target as well.”
Landex is calling for all land-based apprenticeships to be classed as Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) provision, which would mean they would be eligible for additional funding.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “We recognise the importance of agriculture and horticulture subjects, and under our new funding plans, we are moving to a simplified single funding rate for frameworks. In addition we will offer an extra 20 per cent of funding to providers where they train a 16- to 18-year-old.
“Apprenticeships increase the country’s skills base and give millions of young people a step on the ladder of opportunity. Thanks to the levy, £2.5 billion will be invested in apprenticeships by 2019-20 - double the amount spent in 2010-11.”
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