Apprenticeship teaching in England: new practices, roles and professional formation for educators.

Abstract

Whilst apprenticeships are generally supported by workplace trainers and by vocational teachers in schools or colleges, competency-based systems also allocate roles to third-party workplace assessors. Apprenticeship reforms in England, replacing qualification-based ‘frameworks’ with ‘employer-led standards’ have opened up possibilities for these assessors to carry out training duties, although these generally lack the qualifications and status of classroom-based teachers, having completed shorter courses in assessment and sometimes training practice. A qualitative study was carried out among practitioners who had begun to take on training responsibilities, exploring their emerging practices and identities. Participant responses varied in their apprehension of role change, partly because apprentices in more technical subjects would continue to study at colleges, whilst practice-based subjects would be entirely taught in the workplace. More generally, working within production constraints provided challenges implying not a minimal professional formation but a more direct engagement with the problems of educational practice within production environments.