Business school heads vow to fight axing of MBA apprenticeship
The heads of major British company schools have vowed to thwart authorities strategies to axe the MBA apprenticeship by splitting the review into two, with the majority nevertheless getting included by the training programme.
Apprenticeships for senior executives have mushroomed following authorities reforms to capabilities funding that compelled businesses with annual payrolls greater than £3m to set apart an equal to .five per cent of this sum for expending on place of work training strategies.
Unhappiness that levy funds had been getting invested in this way, on programmes costing up to £18,000, prompted education and learning secretary Gavin Williamson to find a overview into the MBA apprenticeship with an eye to eliminating it from the levy system.
The Department for Education has not nevertheless formally scrapped the MBA apprenticeship. But in the newest list of apprenticeship benchmarks issued by the administering company, the necessity to get an MBA or other masters diploma to finish a senior leader qualification has been slice.
Even so, David Oglethorpe, dean of Cranfield university’s faculty of management, told the Financial Situations that his establishment would go on to offer you an MBA no matter what the final result of the overview.
Below Mr Oglethorpe’s proposal, college students would finish a senior leader apprenticeship and then undertake an more piece of coursework and shell out an supplemental payment to get an MBA. Some college students might have to shell out this charge, which could be up to £9,000, themselves but it would nevertheless only be a fraction of the full payment.
“I have been battling tooth and nail to say depart it as it is, but this signifies we could nevertheless offer you the qualification,” Mr Oglethorpe claimed.
“The comments we get from businesses is that it can help them catch the attention of and retain vital staff members. A fifth of our consumption arrive from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and 15 per cent experienced in no way been to university ahead of commencing the programme.”
“The senior leader apprenticeship typical has been mapped on to an MBA curriculum, making it easy for us to offer you an MBA for people that would like one particular,” Mr Oglethorpe claimed. “We would have to demarcate the two qualifications but that is comparatively easy to do.”
This way of funding an MBA has rewards, Mr Oglethorpe added. “Whilst the qualification stays element of an apprenticeship typical, you are not able to question staff members to lead to the charge. If you could, it would suggest they would have pores and skin in the match.”
Other company faculty heads claimed they had been taking into consideration similar preparations if the authorities made the decision to get rid of the MBA from apprenticeships.
“The MBA is seen as a substantial issue on a CV so there will usually be an incentive to offer you a route to finding this by way of the apprenticeship,” John Board, dean of Henley Enterprise Faculty.
“The more substantial threat is that the authorities cuts the price tag businesses must shell out for the apprenticeship, which would no more time make it viable for schools like us to offer you our course. You would then be left with suppliers who only shell out lip services to the benchmarks necessary for significant-top quality management training.”
The idea of featuring an MBA individually to the apprenticeship also acquired the backing of the Chartered Management Institute, the accreditation entire body for management education and learning in the Uk.
“It would set a weird precedent if the authorities claimed that businesses are not able to shell out for their staff members to review for this qualification if that is what they want to do,” Daisy Hooper, the CMI’s head of policy and community affairs, claimed.
“The apprenticeship levy has broadened access to the MBA. Limiting this will shift it again to getting to be an elitist qualification.”
The Department for Education claimed: “The education and learning secretary requested the Institute for Apprenticeships and Specialized Education to overview the senior leader apprenticeships typical to ensure it is meeting its aims and offers value for revenue. The overview is ongoing.”
