Phase 2 of the Evaluation of the Apprenticeship Trailblazers - case studies

The Apprenticeship Trailblazers were introduced as a means to address recommendations from the Richard Review (2012), that employers should take greater ownership of training and assessment.

In early 2014, IES was commissioned carry out a qualitative evaluation of the Phase 1 Trailblazers, involving interviews and board conversation analysis, supplemented by an employer survey. The research was conducted over three phases in order to capture change over time. Consultations involved national stakeholders, lead/contributing employers, employers who had not engaged, and industry and training bodies.

Following the submission of the first interim report from the research, a second tranche of employer networks (20 in total) were engaged to develop more of the new Apprenticeship Standards.

In light of this, IES's evaluation was extended to include eight of these and to track them over two rounds of research, using the same approach. A policy-relevant, final report combining the two Trailblazer phases will be produced in Spring 2015.

Project details

Client	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Year	2014
IES contact	Becci Newton