Business school heads vow to fight axing of MBA apprenticeship
The heads of primary British enterprise colleges have vowed to thwart authorities plans to axe the MBA apprenticeship by splitting the review into two, with the the greater part nonetheless being covered by the education programme.
Apprenticeships for senior executives have mushroomed subsequent authorities reforms to capabilities funding that forced companies with yearly payrolls greater than £3m to established apart an equal to .5 for each cent of this sum for shelling out on workplace education schemes.
Unhappiness that levy funds ended up being spent in this way, on programmes costing up to £18,000, prompted education secretary Gavin Williamson to request a evaluation into the MBA apprenticeship with an eye to eradicating it from the levy method.
The Section for Schooling has not yet formally scrapped the MBA apprenticeship. But in the hottest checklist of apprenticeship specifications issued by the administering company, the prerequisite to obtain an MBA or other masters diploma to comprehensive a senior leader qualification has been minimize.
Nevertheless, David Oglethorpe, dean of Cranfield university’s school of administration, explained to the Economic Instances that his institution would go on to provide an MBA regardless of what the consequence of the evaluation.
Under Mr Oglethorpe’s proposal, learners would comprehensive a senior leader apprenticeship and then undertake an additional piece of coursework and pay back an extra charge to obtain an MBA. Some learners might have to pay back this cost, which could be up to £9,000, them selves but it would nonetheless only be a portion of the whole charge.
“I have been battling tooth and nail to say go away it as it is, but this indicates we could nonetheless provide the qualification,” Mr Oglethorpe claimed.
“The opinions we get from companies is that it helps them attract and retain key staff members. A fifth of our intake arrive from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and 15 for each cent had under no circumstances been to college ahead of beginning the programme.”
“The senior leader apprenticeship typical has been mapped on to an MBA curriculum, producing it uncomplicated for us to provide an MBA for those that would like a single,” Mr Oglethorpe claimed. “We would have to demarcate the two skills but that is somewhat easy to do.”
This way of funding an MBA has benefits, Mr Oglethorpe added. “Whilst the qualification continues to be aspect of an apprenticeship typical, you simply cannot talk to employees to lead to the cost. If you could, it would indicate they would have pores and skin in the game.”
Other enterprise school heads claimed they ended up thinking of very similar preparations if the authorities determined to clear away the MBA from apprenticeships.
“The MBA is witnessed as a significant thing on a CV so there will usually be an incentive to provide a route to finding this through the apprenticeship,” John Board, dean of Henley Small business College.
“The larger hazard is that the authorities cuts the cost companies ought to pay back for the apprenticeship, which would no lengthier make it practical for colleges like us to provide our system. You would then be still left with suppliers who only pay back lip services to the specifications required for high-high-quality administration education.”
The concept of offering an MBA individually to the apprenticeship also gained the backing of the Chartered Management Institute, the accreditation human body for administration education in the British isles.
“It would established a peculiar precedent if the authorities claimed that companies simply cannot pay back for their employees to review for this qualification if that is what they want to do,” Daisy Hooper, the CMI’s head of policy and general public affairs, claimed.
“The apprenticeship levy has broadened obtain to the MBA. Limiting this will shift it again to starting to be an elitist qualification.”
The Section for Schooling claimed: “The education secretary questioned the Institute for Apprenticeships and Complex Schooling to evaluation the senior leader apprenticeships typical to ensure it is assembly its aims and gives price for funds. The evaluation is ongoing.”