Review of the Pilot Foundation Apprenticeship in Financial Services (Scotland) High Level Plan This report highlights the main areas of review of the Pilot Foundation Apprenticeship in Financial Services in Scotland and recommendations for the programme moving forward to meet the revised Skills Development Scotland (SDS) requirements for Foundation Apprenticeships.

Contents Introduction

Page 2

Methodology

Page 2

Findings

Page 3

Recommendations

Page 8

Conclusion

Page 9

Appendix

Page 10

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Introduction The Financial Skills Partnership (FSP), part of Skills of Justice & Health has been commissioned by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to review the existing Pilot Foundation Apprenticeship in Financial Services to meet the new requirements for Foundation Apprenticeships in Scotland. The Final framework document is required by Christmas 2015, but this high level plan is required by SDS by 6th November 2015. A pilot of the existing Foundation Apprenticeship is currently taking place with Colleges in Glasgow and Edinburgh to local employers. Methodology As part of the review, I have spoken and met with the following stakeholders:         

City of Glasgow College – Maxine McClintock; Employers involved in the delivery from Glasgow College – Barclays, Tesco Bank, AXA Insurance; Glasgow Financial Services Employer Group – Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, AXA Insurance, Tesco Bank, SDS, SQA, Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow City Council; Edinburgh College – Jan Thomson and Anne Ferrier; Employers involved in the delivery from Edinburgh College – Tesco Bank, Standard Life and Aegon; SQA Awarding Body – Sharon McDowall, Linda Meikle and Elise Young; SDS – Laura Browne; Santander – Fiona Hay; RBS – Max Reynolds (Apprenticeship Consultant) and Madalaine Leviston (HR Resourcing, Early Careers –Marketing and Attraction Consultant); School pupils on the pilot programme at Edinburgh College.

The main items for discussion for this review were: 

the new credit size (48 to 65) and the new duration (2 years) of Foundation Apprenticeships and the amount of additional work placements.

The existing Foundation Apprenticeship is 40 credits, made of 24 credits from the SQA Award in Financial Services and 16 credits from the 3 SVQ units, which make up the main components of the Foundation Apprenticeship. This is delivered on a part time basis when S5 and 6 pupils are on holiday (only 1 placement block equating to 25% of placement requirement during the programme) or from (choosing from curriculum option choices) their school to attend college for the Award for 2 afternoons a week from 1.30-4.30pm from August to June and the workplace over a 3 week period for the SVQ units. The current pilot duration is 1 year.

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Findings SQA Awarding Body – Elise Young - Call After speaking with Elise Young who was the joint author of the SQA Award, Elise’s perspective on the pilot was that it is working, although pupils find it difficult using their holidays to attend college and the workplace. Elise suggested that a new 5th unit of “workplace –employability skills” should be implemented into the Award of 8 credits to meet the new requirements, but to keep the duration to 1 year, so that the pupils do not become disinterested in the programme. Edinburgh College & Employers Conference Call Edinburgh College set up a conference call with Glasgow College on 28th October 2015 together with representatives from Aegon, Standard Life, Tesco Bank. The group discussed the two main items of the review, namely the new duration of 2 years and the new credit size of 48 as a minimum. Both colleges expressed views to keep the Foundation Apprenticeship to 1 year, because:     

The current one year pilot is working with colleges, pupils and employers; The one year programme can run from June to June to incorporate further work placements; It provides vocational training at school; It provides entry onto the Level 3 Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services; It has opportunities for the students to be recruited into full time employment upon completion of the Foundation Apprenticeship; Other Foundation Apprenticeships, i.e. Engineering do not have work placement in the first year where they have an industry challenge. They also study a National Certificate at the first year at college and the Modern Apprenticeship they can progress onto is 4 years in duration compared to 18 months to 2 years for the Level 3 Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services.

The colleges suggested looking at an industry challenge for the first year like the current “stock market challenge”. I suggested that in order to meet the 48 credit requirement, we could use additional SVQ units in customer service or/and an employability unit in “working with others” and “Leadership: an Introduction). The employers were happy with these topics (other than Aegon who require further approval) and were prepared to consider extending the programme and wanted more pupil contact through the programme. The colleges and employers, especially Tesco Bank are concerned with the additional SVQ customer service units due to the students not being employed and not being able to be placed in real context with customers. They said this can be created in a shadowing environment, but care would need to be taken in terms of the choice of SVQ units. Aegon commented that 2 of their students on the Foundation Apprenticeship have expressed the desire to go to University rather than start work after school and enrol onto the Modern 3

Apprenticeship. The colleges said that this was due to short timeframes in establishing the pilot and more can be done to recruit students to the programme who do not want to go to university or are undecided. Edinburgh College Phone Call I had a phone call with Edinburgh College on 28th October 2015. They had strong views to keep the Foundation Apprenticeship to 1 year for the following reasons:  

Students getting disinterested in a programme; Teaching Resource over 2 years would exceed current funding as the future funding is not clear; Scottish Council funding credits are for a minimum of 18 students. The Foundation Apprenticeship has 8 students at present.

SQA Awarding Body Meeting I met with SQA Awarding Body on Thursday 29th October. SQA suggested two options which were:

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Adding a Personal Finance Awareness unit at SCQF Level 5 and 6 credits to the current Award to provide students with an underpinning knowledge of personal finance as a grounding for the wider financial services environment. Adding a SCQF Level 5 SVQ3 unit – Providing Information to Customers in a Financial Services Environment. This additional SCQF Level 5 SVQ3 unit would enable the student to gain an additional unit exemption, should they progress to the Level 3 Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services, allowing them only 3 units to achieve the SCQF Level 6 SVQ3 in Providing Financial Services.

SQA also mentioned the idea of a research project along the lines of an industry challenge. I discussed the additional SCQF Level 5 SVQ2 units in customer service or/and an SCQF Level 5 employability units in “working with others” and “Leadership: an Introduction and they were happy with these suggestions. SQA also mentioned that there should be an additional 20 hours associated with each of the four Award units as non-directed hours, giving a total amount of 240 hours for the Award and not 160. Adding additional Units to the SQA Award will result in additional work for SQA. SQA would propose a review of the Financial Services Units plus a customised Assessment Support Pack for both Units. SQA will also need to review the documentation produced for the award and revise it to reflect the proposed Award framework. Once agree, funding for this would come from SDS. SQA is carrying out a review of the current Award and its contents - Units etc and the work around this is expected to be completed by summer 2016.

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Edinburgh College Meeting I also met with Jan Thomson from Edinburgh College on Thursday 29th October. I managed to meet with the lecturer and students as there was a lesson in progress. After speaking with the students regarding the programme being extended to 2 years and if they would have joined such a programme, they said the 2 year commitment did not appeal to everyone, in particular those who might want to leave after the 5th year. Edinburgh students fed back this was a positive way to spend their October school week and offered Friday PM early finish to enhance learning time. Glasgow pupils were not involved in feedback. The college mentioned that they have had 3 students drop off the programme due to travel commitments, so they suggested having a written agreement for future programmes. SDS Call I spoke to Laura Browne on Monday 2nd November to update her on my progress. I raised the query of S5 students potentially having too many learning commitments for a 2 year programme and it was mentioned that the revised Foundation Apprenticeships going forward would be part of the curriculum, thus the Foundation Apprenticeships would form part of their options and would not act as additional learning. Glasgow College Meeting with AXA and Barclays by Telephone I met with this group on Wednesday 4 November. It was raised that if the new 2 year programme started in August 2016, then S6 cohort at school would miss out on this opportunity. AXA stated pupils choosing to complete maximum numbers of Highers in S5 and subsequently staying on at school would not have the option to complete the FA in S6 – suggesting a missed pool of talent for employers. AXA also stated that S6 would be their preferred target audience when recruiting school leavers. AXA suggested that it would be difficult to evidence customer service or the GF1 “Providing Information to customers in a Financial Services Environment” unit due, as the students are not full time employers. This can be achieved by shadowing the student, but there will be limited activities for them to undertake, thus they may not achieve all of the unit. AXA were happy with the personal finance awareness and leadership unit and not so the working with others unit. Barclays said they could support the new 2 year duration and have 10 students with them at present. They would like these students to progress onto the Level 3 Modern Apprenticeship and Level 4 and above Technical Apprenticeships. Barclays also expressed the requirement for detailed planning of the programme and the placements. Barclays were also happy with the suggestion of adding 2 new units to the SQA Award, namely working with others and personal finance awareness, but not so keen on Leadership.

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Glasgow College Meeting I met with Maxine McClintock on Wednesday 4 November. It was discussed that the future programme should include further guidance from the training providers to the employers of the type of activities required to meet the SVQ workplace unit criteria, this is currently being developed. Maxine also proposed a 1 year long programme over 2 academic years from June to June. Permitting more time to complete additional credits and work placement. Glasgow Financial Services Group Meeting I met with this group on Wednesday 4 November. It included representatives from AXA, Tesco Bank, Morgan Stanley, Scottish Financial Enterprise, SDS, SQA, BNP Paribas and Morton Fraser. The group were at the heart of the development of the pilot programme and expressed concern regarding the new 2 year duration. They felt industry had ‘spoken’ with the development of the 1 year programme, as it was especially designed to target S5 and 6 students with Highers who may be considering going to university to consider other options. The group felt by extending the programme to 2 years would open up the type of candidate they had in mind for the programme, thus causing potential recruitment difficulties. They felt the new 2 year policy had not been previously consulted with the sector and felt the programme would cause employers, parents and students added concerns to commit to such a programme and were concerned with the potential drop out rate. This would have a dramatic impact on the college. As the students are not employees, the employers felt there would be limited activities for the students to engage in over a 2 year period due to the regulatory environment in which the employers operate. The group suggested that the new 2 year programme may not include a sufficient amount of consistent employer learning over the 2 years and suggested that the pilot programme should be evaluated towards the end of the current pilot programme to provide sufficient evaluation to amend the programme going forward. It was suggested that students could have a work placement with 1 employer in the 1st year and with another employer in the second year for the new 2 year programme, although there may be some potential issues that would need to be resolved, such as ensuring the correct the infrastructure is in place to support holistic assessment of units across a number of employers. Santander Call I had a phone call with Fiona Hay on Thursday 5th November who leads on the UK Apprenticeship programme for Santander. Santander are not currently involved in the pilot programme, but they were happy to support an extended 2 year programme together with the additional units in Personal Finance Awareness and 6

Working with Others, they felt Leadership was not right at this level. The Personal Finance Awareness would also support their Moneywise schools programme. They expressed interest in the programme by helping young people gain experience and therefore a choice as to a career in financial services and concluded that they would support the new trailblazer initiative in England to be extended to the other UK nations. RBS Call I had a phone call with Max Reynolds and Madalaine Leviston from RBS on 6th November. They were happy with the extended 2 year programme and the recommendation to have dual 1 and 2 year programmes running from August 2016 and are exploring options at present as to starting this then. They liked the idea of coming into the employer with 3 SVQ units to contribute to the Level 3 Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services as this would allow the students to undertake new projects. They would be happy to look into the unit detail further during the consultation period. Recommendations After reviewing the findings from the consultation meetings and phone calls with the relevant stakeholders, below are my recommendations to meet the new requirements for the Foundation Apprenticeship:

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SQA Award – For the Award to be extended to incorporate the following units:o Working with others – SCQF Level 5 – 6 credits; o Personal Finance Awareness – SCQF 5 – 6 credits - Please see Appendix 1 for the unit detail; o I have decided not to include the Leadership unit as this would not be applied in the workplace through the SVQ units and did not have sufficient sector support; SVQ Units – For the 3 mandatory units at SVQ3 to remain as they are; GF1 – Provide Information to Customers in a Financial Services Environment – SCQF Level 5 4 credits. This and the earlier customer services SVQ units are not included due to the workplace requirements to achieve these units; This would give a new total of 52 credits (520 hours) for the revised Foundation Apprenticeship in Financial Services – 30 credits at SCQF Level 6 – giving SCQF Level 6 as the overall level of the Foundation Apprenticeship; The revised work placement would be 6 weeks over 2 years, giving a total of 210 (35 week X 6) hours in the workplace. Even though this is not half of the overall total 520 hours, this will provide sufficient time for S5 students to have an induction to the workplace and to achieve the SVQ units in the workplace and allowing some time for students to devote to their school studies and personal holiday without overwhelming them in S5; I have not prescribed a specific timetable for the components of the programme, in order to provide flexibility with training providers and employers to develop programmes that suits all stakeholders. However, I would recommend for the revised SQA Award of 6 units to be 7

delivered through 3 units per academic year starting with the personal finance awareness unit and the introduction to financial services unit in the first year. The 3 SVQ units are delivered holistically so these can be delivered and assessed over the 5 weekly work placements over the 2 years, should this be delivered this way. Conclusion Whilst there are strong views not to extend the programme to 2 years, employers working with Edinburgh College, Barclays and Santander have supported this in general. This paper has been circulated to all stakeholders involved in the review. On the basis of support from SDS for my recommendations and to remain with the existing policy of future Foundation Apprenticeships being 2 years and between (48-65 credits), this and a revised framework document will be circulated to all stakeholders for final approval during 24 November and 14 December allowing a three week window for further consultation and consideration to allow for the final framework document to be submitted to SDS before Christmas 2015. Steven Poss Development Specialist [email protected] 07912 466899 20th November 2015

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Appendix 1 SQA Award Personal Finance Awareness – DM7X 11 – SCQF Level 5 – 6 SCQF credit points Summary On completion of this unit candidates will have enhanced their basic financial literacy. They should have a clear understanding of the factors which have to be taken into account when planning a personal budget, as well as the information available from personal account (bank) statements and pay slips. They should have gained an understanding of the sources of borrowing and related risks, together with an understanding of the value of saving and the variety of ways in which individuals can go about saving.

Outcomes 1. Prepare and main a personal budget. 2. Explain the sources and implications of borrowing. 3. Demonstrate understanding of the need to save and the variety of ways of saving. The full unit detail can be found at:http://www.sqa.org.uk/files/nu/DM7X11.pdf Working with Others – F3GE 11 – SCQF Level 5 – 6 SCQF credit points At SCQF Level 5 learners are expected to be able to work with others in non-routine activities, in surroundings they are used to, and with background assistance only from the tutor. The overall goal of the activity and/or activities should be clear and must be capable of being broken down into separate roles that may in themselves be complex. Relationships between the component roles may not be immediately obvious. The activity (and/or activities) is likely to be unfamiliar to the learners but the component tasks must be familiar to them. The interpersonal skills involved should be varied and some of them may present a challenge to the learner. The full unit detail can be found at:http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/F3GE11_WorkingWithOthers_ASP_2009.pdf

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