Reports published today summarise key recommended changes to apprenticeships and technical education for hair and beauty and creative and design

These follow ‘route reviews’ that look into whether apprenticeships, T Levels and other technical education training is high-quality and fully up to date

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) has published reports summarising results from our latest route reviews.

The first of these is for hair and beauty. It includes the hair professional apprenticeship, which was approved before the Institute launched in 2017 and will now be updated. A recommendation has also been made to develop a standalone new apprenticeship for barbering.

The other report covers highlight findings from our review of 15 apprenticeships for the creative and design sectors. This includes a recommendation for TV, radio, public relations and corporate communications options to be included incorporated into the existing junior journalist apprenticeship.

Further apprenticeships for occupations including bespoke saddler, bespoke tailor and cutter, organ builder, spectacle maker, and watchmaker will be updated.

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive at the Institute, said:
“This has been a really challenging time for these sectors, but these route reviews have provided a fantastic opportunity to gather feedback about what is working and where things need to improve with apprenticeships and technical education. I would like to thank everyone who has taken the trouble to contribute amid deeply difficult circumstances with COVID-19. We place huge value on the impressive level of employer engagement through our trailblazer groups, route panels and wider external consultation.
“I am delighted to be able to present these summaries of the route reviews’ recommendations. We will come out of the pandemic and these reviews will ensure that the right apprenticeships will be in place to support that recovery and serve their sectors’ skills needs for many years to come.”

The reports also set out:

  • What occupations are being added, removed and prioritised for the development of further training options
  • Institute commitments to supporting technical education for hair and beauty and creative and design
  • Our planned next steps.

The Institute recognises that COVID-19 continues to impact heavily on employers and has considered the most appropriate time to reveal the findings of these reviews.

We decided to go ahead with publishing the summary reports so trailblazers can start acting on the recommendations. We expect to publish full reports later this year that further reflect on the impact of COVID-19 and longer-term sector changes.

The hair and beauty and creative and design summary reports can be downloaded here.

For background

  • We launched the hair and beauty and creative and design route reviews in July 2019 with a public consultation for each.
  • The consultations were open to employers, training providers, apprentices and anyone else with an interest in the future of the occupations covered. The consultations included questions on specific apprenticeships included in the respective route review and the occupational map showing opportunities for progression to other technical training. 

  • We understand concerns raised around progression through end point assessment for the hair professional apprenticeship. COVID-19 has made it difficult to keep apprenticeships going while protecting quality and the future status of apprentices, and we know the Institute’s decisions have a huge impact on people’s lives. We are taking this issue very seriously and have launched a new taskforce to help find a solution. It will involve employers in the industry and will report back within a matter of weeks.