IfATE report: A Simpler Skills System

This week, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) published a new report: ‘A Simpler Skills System’. The report supports IfATE’s strategic objective of ‘Building a more integrated skills system’ and follows last year’s Big Conversation, to which SIP and NSSG members contributed.

The report states: “The guiding principles recognise that employers and learners can benefit from a skills system that:

Delivers what employers need now and for the future. We want to unite employers’ insights and learner needs, striking the ideal balance of improvement and stability in the system.
Is clear and user-friendly. We want to promote informed choices about the opportunities and support available to access training for all levels of skilled roles.
Is joined up. Working together, we want to build on the government’s reforms to strengthen and simplify the skills system.”

To meet these objectives, IfATE will continue to drive the skills agenda and has committed the following actions.

Delivers what employers need now and for the future

Ensure our occupational standards, apprenticeships and technical qualifications meet employers’ current and future skills needs.
Provide employers with flexibility to develop their future workforce.
Set out a data-driven approach to monitoring the quality, relevance, and impact of apprenticeships and technical qualifications.

Is clear and user-friendly

Ensure that everyone, from school leavers to employers, has access to the same, high quality, accessible information they need regardless of where they search.
Transform the way users can access information about apprenticeships and technical qualifications and understand the future value to their career journey or workforce.
Build greater awareness, trust and confidence in apprenticeships and technical qualifications
Make the strong case for the boost in productivity employers gain when they offer more skills training.

Is joined up

Drive improvements in outcomes for technical education.
Ensure our apprenticeships and technical qualifications support future local labour market requirements.
Create a seamless, relevant learning experience for technical education learners

In the report IfATE also relaunched its Occupational Maps, which allow users to search by occupation, qualification type (including apprenticeships, T Levels and HTQs) and green credentials.

The report states:

“The occupational maps provide an accessible way to explore occupational standards. They group the standards against 15 routes across the economy. The maps show the relationships between apprenticeships and technical qualifications developed with employers and occupations.”

A representative from IfATE will attend the next SIATE meeting on July 12. If you are interested in attending, please contact Rachel Roby ([email protected]).