Information for employers: apprenticeships and traineeships

Apprenticeships

Why should I take on an apprentice?

Employers are already seeing the rewards that Trailblazer Historic Environment apprenticeships, available in England, can offer. Designed and developed by employers, for employers, the apprenticeships are available at different levels to fill skills gaps and create workforce capacity throughout the profession. Trailblazer apprenticeships take the essential qualities for people working today in the historic environment sector and set them into competence standards that all apprentices must meet. This means that anyone who holds a historic environment apprenticeship qualification has demonstrated their expertise by going through a rigorous assessment process where they have proven that they can do the job, consistently, to those high industry standards. You can use apprenticeships to

  • tailor your staff training to your company’s needs
  • upskill your existing workforce to add value to your business
  • widen and diversify your workforce
  • claim back 95–100 per cent of training costs

There are seven historic environment-sector apprenticeship standards:

The above levels refer to the degree of complexity in each role. They link to a national framework that all accredited qualifications are measured against. To give you an idea of what the levels mean, GCSEs are categorised as level 2 qualifications and A levels are at level 3.

What will it cost?

If you pay the Apprenticeship Levy you can claim it back to pay for their training; if you don’t pay the levy, you can still claim 95 per cent of training costs. You will pay your apprentices a wage and any transport or accommodation costs.

How does it work?

Apprenticeship programmes vary in length, usually depending on the qualification level. Your apprentices will be employees who spend 20 per cent of their working hours in off-the-job learning (taught sessions and individual or group study) while they learn on-the-job skills with you. These will be skills that your business needs to thrive, and you will be training the apprentices to the high standards that you demand of your workforce.

If you want to know more about employing an apprentice you can find about Historic Environment Trailblazer apprenticeships on Historic England’s website and they have also produced a leaflet and postcard. There is more information for employers on apprenticeships.gov.uk.

Apprenticeship training is a collaboration between employers and training providers. Training providers manage the training programmes and arrange elements of training that employers cannot provide, which might include underpinning knowledge about British archaeology and ‘soft skills’. They can also arrange industry skills such as health and safety training.

How is it tested?

The apprenticeship standards break competence down into three areas: knowledge, skills and behaviours, so apprentices do much more than study subject knowledge. They also have to prove that they can apply skills and behaviours to succeed in the job. This means that apprentices can gain credit for not just what they do, but how they do it.

At the end of their training every apprentice goes through a process known as end-point assessment, which is an assessment of their workplace knowledge, skills and behaviours at the end of their programme. Each apprenticeship standard uses a mix of different assessment methods, which could include

  • an online test
  • an observation of the apprentice carrying out tasks in the workplace
  • a professional discussion, supported by a portfolio of evidence, where the apprentice showcases the work they’ve carried out during the programme
  • a project focusing on a specific piece of work, where the apprentice carries out the work and then produces a professional report that is discussed with their assessor

All end-point assessment is carried out by government-recognised assessment organisations (EPAOs) who have to meet rigorous operational standards, along with the assessors who conduct the assessments. CIfA is a recognised EPAO, so if you have any questions about how apprenticeship assessment works, please drop us a line at assessment@archaeologists.net

How do I find a training provider?

The following training providers are either delivering or planning to deliver historic environment apprenticeships:

Are historic environment apprenticeships offered outside England?

Historic environment apprenticeships are only available in England, but the devolved nations also have opportunities for other related apprenticeships and training:

Northern Ireland

There are currently no apprenticeships in archaeology in Northern Ireland, but there are two AIM apprenticeships in cultural heritage that are eligible for ApprenticeshipsNI funding.

https://ewh.org.uk/learning/training-and-apprenticeships/; https://www.apprenticeships.scot/ general information web resource about apprenticeships and a list of apprenticeships, including cultural heritage management, project management and surveying.

Other subjects

There are other apprenticeships such as administration or project management that might be useful to consider if historic environment apprenticeships are not available in your area.

Traineeships

Traineeships are learning and development programmes aimed at 16–24-year-olds. They can help to prepare young people for specific roles, or they might lead on to an apprenticeship. You can also give your current employees opportunities to train and mentor trainees, which, in turn, will increase their own skillset.

Traineeships typically last for six months and you can find out more about them on the gov.uk website.

Some archaeological employers have already taken on young people on traineeships with great success.