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Apprenticeships

The Care Council for Wales in partnership with Skills for Health  develop the Apprenticeship Framework for Health and Social Care is available and can now be downloaded from Apprenticeship Frameworks on line.

Care Council for Wales develop the Apprenticeship Framework for Children's Care Learning and Development and can now be downloaded from Apprenticeship Frameworks on line.

Apprenticeship Framework Online on the Alliance Sector Skills Council website

Attention level 2 and 3 Frameworks in Children’s Care Learning and Development and Health and Social Care

The Care Council for Wales are committed to making the previously advertised changes to the Essential Skills Wales a requirement in 2013. However we are also mindful that some changes will be required to frameworks when the final Specification of Apprenticeship Standards in Wales are published and the current non-statutory frameworks require to be formally issued. It is important to try to keep the number of framework issues to a minimum to avoid confusion for providers and learners. Therefore we will delay the changes until Welsh Government enact the Apprenticeship, Children, Learning and Skills Act in Wales. All changes will be made at one time and new frameworks issued. We will let providers know when this happens, but please make sure that you use Apprenticeship Frameworks online, when signing up new learners to ensure you are using the current framework and know the requirements in detail.

The changes that will be made are listed below.

Level 2 Frameworks

Will require to have Level 2 Communication, Level 1 Application of Number and Level 1 Information and Communication Technology

Level 3 Frameworks

Will require to have Level 3 Communication, Level 2 Application of Number and Level 1 Information and Communication Technology

Employee Rights and Responsibility Workbook

The new Employee Rights and Responsibilities workbook is now available to download. 

The Review of Apprenticeship Frameworks 2012

Care Council for Wales would like to thank everyone who participated in the recent review of apprenticeship frameworks in Health and Social Care and Children’s Care Learning and Development. The Council have taken account of all of the views expressed, together with the needs of employers which were encapsulated in the Sector Qualification and Learning Strategy. Officers from the Council will make recommendations from the review to the Workforce Development Committee in October 2012 and it is likely that some increases to the Essential Skills Wales requirements will be made. Specifically, in communication at level 2 Foundation Apprenticeship Frameworks where the level will be raised to level 2 and also that we will include ICT, initially at level 1 for all levels of both frameworks.

The changes to the frameworks will be formally communicated to providers following the Workforce Development Committee meeting in October 2012 and take effect from Jan 2013. This timeframe will enable learning providers to plan for  the required changes and DfES to reconsider funding. Please check the Care Council website and the Alliance Sector Skills Council website regularly for further updates.

The new frameworks offer employers the opportunity to recruit staff and provide them with training to meet the needs of the social care children and young people's workforce in the 21st century. Care Council for Wales have prepared some leaflets on how employers can use apprenticeships to recruit new staff and train existing staff.

The revised frameworks contain new QCF qualifications that provide occupational competence and are achievable for learners, employers and learning suppliers.

• There are no separate technical certificates for social care or CCLD in Wales.
• The required Essential Skills included remain Application of Number and Communication.
• New Employee Rights and Responsibility books are available for Health and Social Care and CCLD

Essential Skills Wales within Children’s Care, Learning and Development and Health and Social Care (Wales: Non-statutory) Apprenticeship Frameworks.

Care Council for Wales remain committed to driving up the literacy and numeracy of all learners in our sector to contribute to the professionalization of the workforce and the improvement of the quality of services received by people who use services, children and their families. This is to support the intended outcomes from the Welsh Government policy statements Sustainable Social Services for Wales: A Framework for Action and Nurturing Children: Supporting Families.

Following discussions with the DfES funding team it has been agreed that Key Skills gained between 2009 and the end date for Key Skills of August 2011 can be used as an alternative to Essential Skills Wales in both frameworks listed above.

We continue to encourage learning providers to see the requirements in the framework as minimum requirements and to encourage learners to do the next level of Essential Skills if they already hold the minimum Key Skills requirements to start this process.

Following recent discussions with employers, we believe that there remains a real and urgent need to improve literacy and numeracy skills across the workforce and potential workforce. When the framework is reviewed early next year, we will be considering making minimum requirements of level 2 Essential Skills for level 2 frameworks and level 3 for level 3 frameworks and including ICT as a required element.

For more information please contact:

jacky.drysdale@ccwales.org.uk

or

apprenticeships@ccwales.org.uk