A Study On The British Apprenticeship Reform Encouraging Employers Participation

In recent years,various official surveys in Britain have revealed,for example,the high youth unemployment rate in the UK,the mismatch between the supply and demand of talent and skills in the labour market,and the large gap between Britain’s productivity level and its comparator.The British government gradually realized that the shortage of skilled labor was an important factor restricting the development of the country’s economy.Therefore,the cultivation of skilled personnel is regarded as an important national development strategy.In addition,Strengthening the influence of employers and increasing their participation and investment in skills have also been highlighted.Apprenticeship,which is an important part of British skills education,has become the core content of British technical education planning,and the promotion of employer participation has also turned into the theme of British apprenticeship reform in recent years.Marked by the release of the Richard Review of Apprenticeships in 2012,the UK has entered a process of employer-led apprenticeship reform,covering the definition of apprenticeship,the criteria for framework and qualification,and criteria for academic evaluation.The main objective of the comprehensive reform,including funding,is to promote the participation of employers and improve the quality of apprenticeship training.However,the motivation to mobilize employers to participate in the apprenticeship system can not be realized by simply relying on the compulsory means of laws,regulations or administrative orders.The government needs to take some incentives to promote the internal motivation of employers to participate in the apprenticeship system.Motivation refers to the use of various forms of incentives to stimulate,encourage,maintain motivation and mobilize people’s enthusiasm,initiative and creativity.It is a process of transforming the external stimulus into the internal motive force and making people march forward bravely towards the desired goal,which includes incentive subject,incentive object,incentive objective,incentive environment and incentive means.Because the government,employers,reform objectives,reform background and reform measures in the reform of British apprenticeship system correspond to the five elements of incentive,this study analyzes the background and measures of the reform of British apprenticeship system from the perspective of incentive,explores the impact of the British apprenticeship reform on employers and analyzes the causes.This thesis is divided into five parts:Introduction.It mainly explains the origin of the research problem,defines the related concepts involved in the paper,and clarifies the present research situation,the purpose,significance,important difficulties and research methods of this study.Chapter one,an overview of motivation and the reform of British apprenticeship system.This paper introduces the meaning,essence and elements of incentive,and analyzes the corresponding relations between government,employer,reform background,reform goal,reform measure and incentive subject,incentive object,incentive environment,incentive goal and incentive means.Chapter two,Incentive environment——The background of British Apprenticeship Reform.The macro background of apprenticeship reform is analyzed from the aspects of culture,economy,politics and society,and the middle background of apprenticeship reform is analyzed from the perspective of the changes of power between government and employer in the process of development of apprenticeship system in Britain.This paper analyzes the microcosmic background of apprenticeship system reform from the point of view of the importance of employers’ participation in apprenticeship system and the realistic dilemma that employers are not active in apprenticeship system.Chapter three,Incentive means——The main measures of British Apprenticeship Reform.The main measures of financial policy reform include encouraging employers to contribute to apprenticeship system in appropriate ways according to the size of enterprises,introducing digital service platform of apprenticeship system to facilitate employers’ management of apprenticeship funds;granting employers the right to use apprenticeship funds to make them buyers of apprenticeship services;providing additional subsidies to employers who train young apprentices.The main measures for the reform of apprenticeship standards and qualifications include: giving employers a leading position in the development of apprenticeship standards,qualification and evaluation programs,streamlining the apprenticeship system frameworks and qualifications,improving the quality and authority of apprenticeship system frameworks and qualifications;Strengthening employer participation in apprenticeship evaluations to ensure independence and continuity.Chapter four,the impact and evaluation of the British apprenticeship system reform.Based on the information available,This paper analyzes the influence of apprenticeship system reform from the angle of employer’s response to the specific reform measures,the change of the number of employers participating in apprenticeship system and the change of employer’s satisfaction with apprenticeship system before and after the reform.