Apprenticeship Units have arrived, and as the leading learner management platform, Onefile is running a two-part webinar about this new bite-size qualification.
The first part, on June 3, Apprenticeship Units are here: Ready to support you next had a high attendance rate and plenty of customer engagement, with attendees submitting their questions throughout the 45-minute event.
Hosted by Kelly Huntington, Onefile’s Sales & Marketing Director, the webinar featured presentations from Lee Reddington, Partnership Director at awarding organisation OAL and Josh Redmayne, VP of Research & Development at Onefile.
Lee spoke about Apprenticeship Units from the assessor perspective, focusing on sector drivers, quality and funding considerations, while Josh shared his insights into how the units will be delivered in practice and what that will look like for providers day to day.
Apprenticeship Unit assessment
Apprenticeship Units, despite the name, are not like full standalone apprenticeships which usually take at least 12 months to complete. They are, as Lee explained, short sharp interventions, targeted at employed staff to fill skills gaps quickly and effectively. Built from existing apprenticeships, their knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) content can be taken from multiple standards. Each unit’s assessment must include a skills test that is provider led and must be validated by the employer, again making Apprenticeship Units completely different from full apprentice programmes.
Lee also provided a helpful walkthrough of the units’ eligibility and funding requirements. All learners taking an Apprenticeship Unit must be aged 19 or over, be employed in England and not be enrolled on another apprenticeship at the same time. Crucially, funding is conditional on providers being able to evidence that each learner has acquired the specific knowledge and skills set out in the approved Apprenticeship Unit.
Lee went on to talk about the units’ funding rates, the benefits of having larger cohorts of employees taking them and the importance of ensuring delivery is face to face. He explained that as the units have been designed to target specific skills shortages, they could be ‘switched on and off,’ depending on sector need at any given time. The pilot units, which include AI leadership, solar panel installation, electrical vehicle charging and battery manufacture, have been released in one batch, although future units will be rolled out individually.
Lee also addressed ‘the elephant in the room’, challenges such as funding rates being perhaps lower than employers had hoped and a risk that the units might undermine the value of a full apprenticeship. Additionally, he touched on potential variances in consistency and how together providers could reduce this risk through high quality co-designed units. Lee also went on to explain how formal certification could increase the value and portability of units, meaning that employees changing jobs could have the unit KSBs they’ve acquired recognised by future employers.
Following Lee’s overview, Josh outlined the practical side of delivering the units within Onefile, illustrating how the same platforms that run apprenticeships – Onefile’s Enrol, Eportfolio, ILR Tracker and Reporting are also geared for short, quick courses. He talked about how the customisable logical separation in the platform’s backend was making it simple to onboard unit learners and evidence that learning. Josh also explained how Onefile – which has already seen some uptake of Apprentice Units among its customers – can quickly migrate delivery plans across its different centres. He also added that Onefile’s functionality meant that future units could be built easily into the system as new ones are released.
The second part of the webinar, which builds on the insights shared during our first event, will take place from 2pm to 2.45pm on July 1 and you can save your seat here.
To learn more about how Onefile can support you in your Apprenticeship Unit delivery, contact us for a discovery call.