The Engineering Council held a workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities that Higher Apprenticeships and Degree Apprenticeships may present to the regulatory body and the professional engineering institutions. More than 35 staff from institutions took part. The aim of the event, held on 11 May 2017, was to inform discussion around the development of policy and guidance on formal recognition of these Apprenticeships. The Engineering Council will develop policy and guidance in this area alongside the forthcoming reviews of its UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC), and the Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes handbook (AHEP).

Related to this work, the Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) is holding an event about Degree Apprenticeships on 7 July 2017. The Engineering Council is represented on the EPC Degree Apprenticeships Working Group and Education and Skills Manager Catherine Elliott will be presenting at the EPC event, speaking about degree accreditation and recognition of Degree Apprenticeships. Please follow the link for more information about this event: epc.ac.uk

Government policy stipulates that Apprenticeships should be aligned to professional registration, where it exists, to ensure quality. In the engineering sector professional engineering institutions continue to engage with and contribute to the development of new engineering Apprenticeship standards to make sure that they are aligned to the requirements laid out in UK-SPEC. Current processes permit institutions to consider degrees that sit within Degree Apprenticeships for accreditation.