UK government set to pull plug on MBA apprenticeships

A controversial MBA apprenticeship scheme that authorized organizations in England to send senior executives to company college with money earmarked for on-the-occupation coaching is set to be axed.

The transfer to scrap the qualification was exposed when the Institute for Apprenticeships and Complex Schooling, which administers apprenticeship expectations, released a revised listing of apprenticeship expectations adhering to comments from businesses with all reference to MBAs eradicated.

The selection is envisioned to be confirmed in early June when the federal government is due to publish a evaluate of MBA apprenticeships. 

The inclusion of MBAs as element of the government’s apprenticeship scheme was widely criticised as it diverted a huge proportion of the funding away from place of work coaching. The funding for apprenticeships comes from a levy introduced in 2017 that necessitates businesses with annual wage expenditures over £3m to set aside an equivalent of .5 per of their payroll.

Under levy rules, businesses are offered regulate around which qualifications can be classed as apprenticeships. Permitted schemes vary from stage-two GCSE-equivalent courses for college leavers, these kinds of as coaching for shop personnel, to degree-stage roles, these kinds of as attorneys and nurses.

Improved administrators is what this place desperately demands

The MBA was involved as a element of the stage-seven senior chief occupational conventional.

Under the improvements, businesses will still be authorized to commit the levy on substantial-stage leadership coaching but it would be less interesting as participants would no more time acquire a masters degree at the stop of the programme.

Critics argued the MBA scheme was an abuse of the apprenticeship levy. In the 1st entire yr after the levy was introduced in April 2017, there ended up 375,800 new apprenticeship starts off, a 26 per cent drop on the same period of time in 2015/16.

Nonetheless, the proportion of higher-stage apprenticeships, equivalent to bachelor’s levels and over, amplified from 5.3 per cent to 12.eight per cent all through this period of time.

A review by FE 7 days magazine calculated that there ended up 6,387 starts off on MBA apprenticeship programmes up to the stop of the 1st quarter of 2019/twenty. Given that each and every of these courses can acquire up to £18,000 from the apprenticeship levy pot, up to £115m had been invested on the standard in that fiscal yr.

Jennifer Coupland, chief govt of the institute, had as not long ago as January defended the MBA programme, which she stated filled abilities gaps determined by businesses.

Nonetheless, the most recent comments from businesses has revealed a shift in opinion. “The employer team have designed a apparent advice, which we are now consulting on,” the IfATE stated.

The Office for Schooling stated: “The instruction secretary is committed to retaining an employer-led system, but is not persuaded the levy ought to be applied to pay out for employees, who are typically by now extremely skilled and extremely paid out, to acquire an MBA.”

Organization educational institutions, which have benefited most from the development in bachelor’s and masters-stage degree apprenticeships, expressed disappointment at the selection to take away the ability to gain an MBA via levy funding.

“Better administrators is what this place desperately demands,” stated Anne Kiem, chief govt of the Chartered Affiliation of Organization Schools, which signifies the United kingdom sector.

“Taking the qualification out of the senior chief conventional would make it pretty unattractive for most of those people who have signed up for it to day.”