The Degree Apprenticeship in Optometry

An updated approach to apprenticeships is a UK-wide government initiative. It was formalised by the Enterprise Act (2016), and enables apprenticeships to be developed that are underpinned by degrees. All employers with a salary bill over £3m a year have paid the apprenticeship levy since April 2017. This enables them to invest in developing their workforce through apprenticeships. Smaller employers don’t pay the levy, but can also use it to invest in apprenticeships. The agenda is strongly linked policy-wise to the government’s Industrial Strategy and enhancing skills at all levels across all parts of the UK economy. Degree apprenticeships can be developed up to doctorate level, including to provide entry to professions subject to statutory regulation. 

While UK-wide, the apprenticeship agenda is implemented differently in each of the four countries. (The focus of the current consultation is for an optometrist degree apprenticeship in England only.) 

The College was not part of the initial trailblazer group (the term used under apprenticeship policy) which made the recommendation for the degree apprenticeship, but we have now joined the group to protect patient safety and to ensure that existing high qualification standards and competencies, learning experience, and outcomes are upheld.

We will strongly oppose any route to qualification which diminishes standards, quality of education or patient safety.

The proposal for an optometrist degree apprenticeship in England was developed by employers that formed the initial trailblazer group. The group comprises representatives from a range of employers, with involvement from a number of universities that deliver optometry education and other stakeholders. 

The full list of organisations involved is listed here.

In England, a proposal for a new apprenticeship needs to gain initial approval from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), based on evidence of its demand and assurance that it relates to a distinct occupational role. Once a proposal has been approved for development, the trailblazer group that put it forward is responsible for drafting a full apprenticeship standard. This has to define the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for the role and the level at which these need to be performed. The standard is then subject to public consultation and refined in light of the feedback received.

With an optometrist degree apprenticeship, the IfATE has approved the initial proposal and the trailblazer group has drafted the standard. This is the stage we are at now, and you can respond to the public consultation. 

An end-point assessment plan also has to be developed, while the cost of delivering the educational component of the apprenticeship is determined to calculate its tariff. This is the amount of funding an education provider would receive to deliver the apprenticeship and that an employer would pay to access it. All elements have to be approved by the IfATE before an apprenticeship is ready for delivery.

Once approved, a degree apprenticeship has to be delivered by an organisation with degree-awarding powers and that is registered with the Register of Apprenticeship and Training Providers. The educational component is a degree that needs to meet the academic requirements for a degree at the relevant academic level. It also has to enable apprentices to meet the knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) set out in the approved apprenticeship standard. In turn, the KSBs have to fulfil the regulatory requirements that apply to the profession for which an apprenticeship provides an entry route.

A university planning to deliver an approved degree apprenticeship has to take the planned degree programme through its standard validation process and secure accreditation from the relevant statutory regulator. Standard university and regulator quality assurance and monitoring processes then apply to implementation. The IfATE also sets specific quality assurance requirements. 

We recognise that there are risks attached to the degree apprenticeship and share anxieties about what a new optometry education route could mean. We believe that our role is to guard against a degree apprenticeship risking the reputation and credibility of optometry education and the profession, destabilising established optometry education provision and future workforce supply, or compromising patient safety.

We believe that the best way to address these risks is direct engagement. Our approach and priorities are more fully explained in our position statement above. 

If you want to take action, you can personally respond to the apprenticeship consultation by 12pm on Monday 9 December. If you have comments, suggestions or questions you would like to share with us, please get in touch.

The entry requirements to individual apprenticeship programmes would be set by individual universities that choose to deliver the degree apprenticeship, against the requirements set out in the apprenticeship standard (once approved).

This would be up to individual universities offering the degree apprenticeship, if it’s approved for delivery, and how they design their programme to meet the apprenticeship standard. The proposal is that an optometrist degree apprenticeship is offered at Master’s degree level. Universities would need to ensure that their programmes met the academic requirements for awards at this level. This includes science and research-based learning and assessment, and the more specific knowledge, skills and behaviours relating to critical thinking, professionalism and clinical-reasoning and decision-making.

Delivery of the degree apprenticeship would need to meet government-set requirements relating to the balance of ‘on-the-job’ and ‘off-the-job’ learning. While universities would take primary responsibility for the latter, employers would be responsible for ensuring apprentices’ safe, high-quality learning progression in the workplace.

Formal requirements for apprenticeship delivery include implementing learning contracts between an employer, university and individual apprentices. Those involved in supervising and mentoring apprentices in the workplace would need the skills, time and support to facilitate safe and effective learning up to the level of the degree apprenticeship in question. This is a significant undertaking and requires investment in workforce development by employers.

This is difficult to predict. There are multiple approval stages through which the proposal would need to progress. If fully approved, universities choosing to deliver a degree apprenticeship would then need to develop their programmes, take these through validation and secure GOC accreditation. Employers would also need to contract with universities to secure access to the apprenticeship and recruit apprentices. The apprenticeship would therefore be unlikely to be available before 2021. 

A further complicating factor is that it is planned that a degree apprenticeship would map to the new outcomes generated by the GOC’s education strategic review. These have not yet been developed.