UK government set to pull plug on MBA apprenticeships

A controversial MBA apprenticeship plan that authorized businesses in England to deliver senior executives to enterprise college with dollars earmarked for on-the-task teaching is established to be axed.

The move to scrap the qualification was uncovered when the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technological Training, which administers apprenticeship benchmarks, published a revised record of apprenticeship benchmarks pursuing suggestions from companies with all reference to MBAs taken out.

The determination is envisioned to be confirmed in early June when the government is thanks to publish a critique of MBA apprenticeships. 

The inclusion of MBAs as part of the government’s apprenticeship plan was widely criticised as it diverted a big proportion of the funding away from place of work teaching. The funding for apprenticeships will come from a levy released in 2017 that demands companies with once-a-year wage costs previously mentioned £3m to established apart an equivalent of .5 for every of their payroll.

Beneath levy rules, companies are specified regulate over which skills can be classed as apprenticeships. Accredited schemes assortment from degree-two GCSE-equivalent programs for college leavers, these kinds of as teaching for store workers, to degree-degree roles, these kinds of as lawyers and nurses.

Greater supervisors is what this region desperately wants

The MBA was included as a part of the degree-seven senior chief occupational typical.

Beneath the alterations, companies will however be authorized to expend the levy on superior-degree management teaching but it would be fewer appealing as individuals would no more time obtain a masters degree at the close of the programme.

Critics argued the MBA plan was an abuse of the apprenticeship levy. In the first comprehensive yr right after the levy was released in April 2017, there were being 375,800 new apprenticeship commences, a 26 for every cent fall on the identical time period in 2015/16.

Nevertheless, the proportion of bigger-degree apprenticeships, equivalent to bachelor’s degrees and previously mentioned, amplified from 5.3 for every cent to 12.8 for every cent in the course of this time period.

A analyze by FE Week journal calculated that there were being 6,387 commences on MBA apprenticeship programmes up to the close of the first quarter of 2019/20. Offered that each individual of these programs can obtain up to £18,000 from the apprenticeship levy pot, up to £115m had been invested on the standard in that fiscal yr.

Jennifer Coupland, main govt of the institute, had as recently as January defended the MBA programme, which she reported loaded competencies gaps recognized by companies.

Nevertheless, the newest suggestions from companies has revealed a shift in view. “The employer team have created a obvious advice, which we are now consulting on,” the IfATE reported.

The Office for Training reported: “The education and learning secretary is dedicated to sustaining an employer-led process, but is not persuaded the levy must be utilized to spend for employees, who are frequently now very competent and very compensated, to obtain an MBA.”

Company universities, which have benefited most from the expansion in bachelor’s and masters-degree degree apprenticeships, expressed disappointment at the determination to take out the means to get an MBA by means of levy funding.

“Better supervisors is what this region desperately wants,” reported Anne Kiem, main govt of the Chartered Affiliation of Company Schools, which signifies the British isles sector.

“Taking the qualification out of the senior chief typical helps make it quite unattractive for most of individuals who have signed up for it to day.”