1. We are so Levy Ready: planning for successful implementation
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We are so Levy Ready: planning for successful implementation
August 2017
Venture Leadership Team meeting 1

2. Pearson – the world’s leading education company
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Pearson – the world’s leading education company
Pearson is the world's learning company, with a turnover of £4.5 billion and 32,000 employees across 70 countries worldwide
We employ over 4,600 people in the UK
Our unique insight and world-class expertise comes from our long history of working closely with teachers, learners, researchers, authors, and thought leaders
We are a leading provider of electronic learning programmes and of test development, processing and scoring services to educational institutions, corporations and professional bodies
Our curriculum materials, multimedia learning tools and testing programmes help to educate millions of people worldwide - more than any other private enterprise.

3. Our business and integration of apprenticeships
Global policy, infrastructures and systems Trying to plan for England separately from UK requirements Divisional/operational focused parts of the business versus ‘back office’/enabling functions objectives
Global Policy, infrastructures and systems.
We are a company that is directed by global considerations in every aspect of our business. We do not have country specific approaches, systems and we are aiming to centralise these systems and infrastructures even more to make us more efficient. This means that everything we need to consider for our apprentices has to be developed and implemented within constraints that are much wider. An example: our recruitment system is designed for global recruitment so we had to get permission to add in a field to identify a candidate as a UK/English apprentice. Our L&D offer is global so when we create career and development pathways we have to be clear it is for UK staff and English apprentices. We cannot ‘tweak’ anything to better suit our apprenticeship content. However, we can develop global approaches by using the apprenticeship as we are doing ie we are working with the L&D team on the global leadership standards for our business and we are aligning them to the apprenticeship standards.
Planning for England separately from the UK
Fortunately the majority of our business in the UK is in England however, we do have a big team of employees based in Northern Ireland and we want them to have the same opportunities. At present this cannot be supported through the Levy but we are using the apprenticeship structure and approach to develop a programme over there that perhaps some day will come under the Levy. We are doing this commercially and using local funding routes.
Division/operational versus ‘back office’ functions
We are not the sort of business that has set roles at certain levels in the business where apprenticeships can be seen as a mandatory starting route. That makes us more exciting and challenging as we have the opportunity to offer many apprenticeships at all types of levels within the business and across the business. However, as an awarding and EPA organisation there has been some challenges that needed to be managed:
The internal apprenticeship team is separated from our external apprenticeship product offer. We support each other and the internal programme is a great example to be used with customers and future clients. Having an internal apprenticeship programme has been confusing for some people when they only know the products we sell. However, we have had a strong communication approach internally which has ensured that the employee programme is understood.
We sometimes have some interesting conflicts of interests where our apprentices are working within parts of the business that mean they might know the functional skills test they could take, the know the EP assessment questions etc. We have worked very hard with our training partners to ensure that this conflict is identified at the expression of interest phase and then alternative arrangements are made for the apprentice. It does mean that our apprentices do not always get a Pearson accredited apprenticeship or qualification but that is minor in ensuring that our apprentices are treated fairly.
I welcome today as an opportunity to ease some of the confusion that exists about Pearson. I find that few people appreciate that we are an employer as well as everything else and we are a unique on in the Learning and Education sector. However, I am speaking as an Employer and about our employees and how we are really embracing all of these changes to the betterment of our staff and the business. I find when I attend young people careers fairs I have to talk about BTEC and Edxcel before they grasp who we are!

4. Balance and benefits
Awarding organisation/EPA provider The benefits of a English apprenticeship programme for the rest of the business
4. When I speak to young people at career conferences they do not know who Pearson is. When I say BTEC or Edxcel then they can relate as they think of the qualifications they hold. As an awarding and EPA organisation we have some challenges around our apprentices as we have to ensure there is no conflicts of interest in their job that affects their achievement of the apprenticeship ie we move someone from the Pearson functional skills if they work in that part of the business, we work with our training partners to use another EPA if our apprentice would know what their assessment questions were going to be. However, the benefit is that the employee programme and our partners can get a much quicker understanding of new products to the market through the relationship we have with these parts of the business.
5. The more and more we develop our apprenticeship programme the more we can see ways we can take the concepts and principles of this into other parts of the business. I have started to work not just with Northern Ireland but also into other European countries to offer a blended approach to learning that enhances the way we develop our staff through our L&D offer. The training partners that we have brought on board are able to offer insights and expertise that assist managers in developing their staff in addition to apprenticeships and it has given me the opportunity to improve on existing processes such as recruitment and selection ie use of social media, psychometric testing etc. Our apprentices also get the benefit to not just getting support through the apprenticeship and our training partners but also from the myriad of support mechanisms, resources etc that we have in the business available for our staff but also for our customers.

5. Key priorities for successful implementation
Planning is the key
Project approach – cross-business and enabling functions
Integration of systems
Workforce development
Procurement and partnership development
Quality assurance
The key to being ready for 2 May was planning.
We set up a project team, steering committee of key decision makers and put together a project plan. We thought through all of the systems and processes where we wanted apprentices to be embedded and planned with the subject experts what needed to happen and whether it was possible and in the timeframe.
We planned everything out and planned ahead in great detail and back-tracked from our ‘go live’ to ensure we could achieve everything ie the procurement process to ensure that we could follow the principles of public contracting regulations as an example. We used this as an opportunity to really get the key drivers in the business understanding apprenticeships, their role in making it happen, the benefits to them, their business, their teams. We didn’t just go top down but spread outwards so that we would touch all parts of the business including ‘back-office’ functions.
Due to our global nature and ways of working we needed to know if things were possible, get the right people involved, structure clear specifications for system changes, report production etc. We developed apprenticeship processes that dovetail with normal process but also identified where they needed to be different and linked to our training partners. Ie we identified what we would do and what our providers would do and where the evidence would be to assist with audit and the ESFA evidence pack.
We ensured that our HR, TA teams and line managers were the first to be trained in apprenticeships, the new standards and benefits to individuals, teams and the business. This meant that apprentices were built into operational plans for 2017/18, recruitment plans and example being where one part of our business created assistant team leaders who do the team leading level 3 standard in readiness to take over as team leaders when the growth in this area is predicted. They also help with sickness, annual leave and maternity cover to build up their knowledge and skills.
One thing you have to get right if you are not becoming an employer provider is your sub-contracting. We followed the public sector contracting regulations to ensure that we did everything correctly due to the amount of money involved. This was very time-consuming but it has meant that we have a core group of high quality training partners (several of whom are here today). They are on a framework agreement which enables us to bring in specialist partners when we need them so by this October will have grown our partners to 8. They work with us on the Levy but also work within the business on commercial opportunities and we are very much partners developing our processes and ways of working as we evaluate how effective our practices are.
Quality assurance is a natural part of procurement and we have applied a risk assessment approach so that those that have any risk have more stringent contract monitoring. We have transparent reporting from our partners with access to e-portfolios and on-line system reports. We conduct join observations of teaching, learning and assessment and include our apprentices in this so that everyone’s knowledge and expertise improves. We have set up a schedule of quarterly provider events through the year where all providers come together with us and share practice with us also sharing what we are doing in the business that will enhance the programmes and ways of working.

6. Top Five Tips Plan thoroughly across the business.
Map your Learning and Development to the apprenticeship standards
Work closely with Finance so that they become experts in the Apprenticeship System
Create a cohesive, simple and clear communication strategy for the business
Use your Leadership team and senior managers to ‘sell’ apprenticeships into the business with the correct messages

7. Presenter: Anne Ashworth Head of Pearson Employee Apprenticeships email: anne.ashworth@pearson.com

8. There’s so much more to learn