Creating Inclusive New Routes To Careers In Government

We were engaged by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury to create new apprenticeship routes to economist careers in central Government, working with colleagues across the Government Economic Service (GES).

To create the schemes, we first needed to work with colleagues across the public, private and third sectors – and with the (then) Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) to create new apprenticeship ‘standards’ and assessment plans at the equivalent of degree and master’s degree levels. 

We could then work with colleagues representing the economics profession in more than 20 Government departments, agencies, and regulators, to design, commission, and mobilise new cross-Government apprenticeship programmes that would meet their needs.

To do that, we:

• Facilitated and supported the work of the employer-led ‘trailblazer’ group which had been empowered by the IfA to develop the apprenticeship standards – capturing employers’ insights about the requirements of early career roles in the profession.
• Led technical work to prepare successive iterations of the apprenticeship standards, defining the knowledge, skills, and behaviours which apprentices should work toward through the programmes – and indicating how those capabilities related to each other.
• Applied our technical expertise to prepare an ‘end point assessment’ plan which described how different of those knowledge, skills, and behaviours should be assessed in a manner consistent with Government’s overall approach to apprenticeship assessment.
• Designed, ran, and responded to the conclusions of substantive consultations with a wider group of employers and practitioners on the draft apprenticeship standards and assessment plans – before finalising them for approval.
• Navigated Government’s approvals process – providing robust evidence and arguments for the design decisions that the trailblazer group had taken and quickly responding to questions raised by the IfA before they approved the standards and assessment plans. 

Having secured approval of the standards, we:

• Engaged chief economists in departments, agencies, and regulators, across Government to promote the concept of the schemes, and secure their commitment to participate – by providing apprenticeship placements in their organisations in our first annual cycle.
• Consulted colleagues to build a clear statement of requirements for the schemes, from outreach and candidate engagement, through selection, onboarding, delivery, assessment and support for progression through the civil service.
• Conducted formal soft market engagement exercises to gauge the higher education market’s interest in delivery the schemes, understand the capability and innovation they could bring, and consider their input to our specification of requirements.
• Finalised a detailed statement of requirements, and worked with Crown Commercial Service (CCS) colleagues to design and run the public procurement process required to select suppliers for each programme – including by providing expert advice to the panel.
• Led commercial and contractual negotiations with the preferred bidder for each programme, including the definition of a detailed schedule of service levels and performance indicators, and the specification of their delivery models.

Oversaw mobilisation and early implementation activity by the University of Kent, and Queen Mary University London (QMUL) – providing them with expert advice and challenge, and reporting to our GES clients on progress, issues, and risks.

Of our work, our client said: “[Avencera] provided us with exceptional advice and active support to specify, procure and mobilise an important new apprenticeship programme.  With their support we have created a powerful new learning and development route for professional economists in Government.  

Their understanding of the central Government operating context, of apprenticeship policy and high-quality delivery – and of wider commercial and operational best practice – was incredibly helpful to us at every stage.”