In the North West, Damar works with a broad swathe of employers, offering apprenticeship recruitment and delivery to Levy-paying and non-Levy businesses in areas such as administration, management, accounting and customer service, as well as legal services and travel. The company currently has around 100 employees and about 1,800 apprentices on its books.

Damar’s relationship with Pearson stretches back many years. In the last 2-3 years though, the relationship has become closer as Damar was early to make the shift from apprenticeship frameworks to apprenticeship standards, one that is now almost complete. As with all significant change, this transition has not been easy for the sector generally and a fall of 24% in apprenticeship starts between 2016-17 and 2017-18 has led to some real challenges for the sector. Damar is amongst the minority of providers to have grown over the period and it is interesting to look at why this has been the case.

Damar took a positive view of the new standards from the kick-off and, arguably, beforehand. Several years before apprenticeship standards came into being, it assembled the consortium that developed the first “trailblazer” legal apprenticeship and, responding to the needs of employers, has since been proactive in helping to develop and now deliver several standards. This has involved working extensively with colleagues at Pearson, with whom it delivers the Customer Service Practitioner and Business Administrator Apprenticeships. It has also involved significant change to the structure of its business.

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Jonathan Bourne, Damar’s Managing Director says that adopting Apprenticeship standards requires providers and employers to go “all in”; for him, there is no half-way house between the old and new worlds. He continues: “It is such a different environment that attempting to deliver standards using the same methods and back-office systems as for frameworks is high risk. At the time, we didn’t appreciate that we were embarking on a process that would mean re-engineering almost every aspect of what we do. The process still isn’t complete but I can say that every job within our business has changed; employer and learner engagement and delivery have changed out of all recognition, not to mention having had to redo our contractual and enrolment paperwork, initial assessment and quality systems, our marketing collateral and our training materials,” he explains.

“To be successful, we have had to bring our colleagues, employers and apprentices with us on our journey. This means being clear, at all times, about the direction of travel and where we are headed but also being honest with colleagues and partners about the unknowns. This is where integrity and trust are so important and I am proud of and hugely grateful to colleagues and all those employers and apprentices who have worked with us on apprenticeships that are new to market. It is satisfying that we are now seeing many of those first apprentices following, for example, the paralegal, conveyancing, accountancy, travel consultant and customer service practitioner standards and completing successfully. Often they are amongst the first in the country to do so.”

One example is Damar client, Co-op Funeralcare, which is going through a significant change programme. Changing job roles has led to a need for a well-structured development plan for staff and here Damar, working with Pearson, have been able to step in to develop sector-specific content mapped to the requirements of the customer service practitioner and team leader standards. The process is quality-assured using Pearson Assured.

Roz Milligan, Strategic L&D Business Partner at the Co-op: “It has been refreshing to see how Damar and Pearson have approached the project from the starting point of the business needs of the Co-op. It has not been a case of just selling in an existing product. Instead, it has been about considering our needs and really using apprenticeship standards for the purpose for which they were designed – i.e. to deliver learning programmes that add real value.”

At the other end of the scale, Damar has worked alongside Stuarts Homes in Stockport to bring four young employees successfully through their apprenticeships. The latest of these apprentices Olivia Hayes was the first to complete her programme under the new standards. “Damar are very good as a training partner,” says Amanda Adams, who was Olivia’s mentor at Stuarts. “They are supportive of the students and feed the correct information through when necessary. “We were briefed that the standards had changed. It didn’t really affect me as a mentor or Claire, the owner of Stuarts because I didn’t need to know a huge amount about the apprenticeship as Damar guided her through it and Olivia was also able to liaise with Claire on some of her questions.”

The collaborative working relationship with Pearson has also proved effective as the first apprentices have approached EPA. End-point assessment has been new for all concerned and, in some cases, it has not been clear exactly what EPA would look like until towards the end of apprentices’ programmes. 

“We’ve all been learning together and, inevitably there have been bumps in the road. But, by learning from what has and hasn’t worked, we have been able to build our systems in partnership with Pearson’s and we are already seeing the process getting smoother,” Jonathan says.

The work is paying dividends. Damar has so far had more successful customer service practitioner apprentices than any other training provider working with Pearson and most of those who have passed have done so with a distinction, which is a good start and a reflection of the value of the work put in by both organisations.

Those organisations that have grasped the nettle early and adapted to the new environment are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The collaboration of Damar and Pearson has already demonstrated that it can produce excellent outcomes for employers and learners alike and it has provided a solid base for what comes next. “Now, it is about using that platform and working together to embed greater quality, consistency and continuous improvement into the offer, to give employers and learners the best possible outcomes,” Jonathan says.

When asked to look ahead, he adds; “Future-gazing at a time when there is such a huge amount of market disruption is risky. We need to bear in mind too that the job market itself is changing fast and that many of the roles undertaken by today’s apprentices will simply not exist in a decade or two from now. Key to the success of employers and providers therefore will be agility and helping apprentices develop transferable skills and the resilience to cope with the change that, for many, is inevitable.

“Personally, I suspect that we will see some movement away from the highly specialised standards that we see being developed currently, many of which may ultimately fail because demand is low and the barriers to entry for high-quality providers are high. Instead, I expect an increase in Apprenticeships with slightly broader appeal (I hesitate to call them “generic”) but which allow good providers and employers to build tailored content that meets the specific needs of particular sectors,” he says.

“At Damar we have done this, very successfully, in several of our core sectors and provided funding caps for Apprenticeships are not reduced to a point that makes it hard to include added value, I think this will continue. I also hope that there will be more apprenticeships at level 2. One effect of the growth in apprenticeships at level 3 and above and the significant funding cuts for the remaining level 2 frameworks had been a reduction in the number of opportunities for school and college leavers. This leads to fewer apprentices progressing and achieving their full potential. We have apprentices who began with us at level 2 and are now part-way through level 7 solicitor apprenticeships. I hope that it will be possible for future school leavers to do the same.”

Two apprentices who have already completed their journey are Olivia Hayes and Megan Hughes. Let’s see what they have made of being amongst the first to come through an Apprenticeship on the new standards, with the help of Damar and Pearson.

Olivia is a Lettings Negotiator at Stuarts Homes in Stockport. She joined the business as an active apprentice, having already begun an apprenticeship – Customer Services Practitioner Level 6 – with a previous employer.

When she transferred the apprenticeship to her new employer, Stuarts, she also moved from the old Apprenticeship Framework into the new Apprenticeship Standards, which required her to readdress previous work and adapt her approach. “I had to make all of my work relevant to Stuarts and basically do it all again, add some things in and take some out,” says Olivia. “It was a challenge, but Damar directed me through the process and the new criteria and I got there!

Megan joined Greater Manchester Police (GMP) as an Apprentice Crime Recorder and having completed her Customer Service Apprenticeship within GMP’s Operational Communications Branch, she is now Business Support Assistant.

“I had previously worked as a broker account manager,” Megan says. “My role as an apprentice within the Operational Communications Branch involved being on the telephone to victims of crime and ensuring there is no further detail before sending the crime off to be dealt with accordingly. I also dealt with live inbound 101 calls in which I was able to handle different and changing circumstances.

“Through the GMP Apprenticeship Programme, you can apply for full time permanent roles after 6 months, allowing you an additional 6 months to secure yourself a permanent position. Fortunately, I was able to do so therefore, now I am permanent I can consider different pathways I would like to take within GMP in order to excel.”

Throughout the Apprenticeship, support was on hand when Megan needed it. “My manager within GMP was very supportive that I was an apprentice and understood that I had tasks to complete within each visit of my Damar trainer. Whenever I needed time out of the crime recording, I confirmed with my manager if it was OK for me to complete some Damar work. My Damar trainer was very supportive, explained the work and tasks clearly and was always readily available via email or telephone if I ever had any troubles or queries,” she says.

Olivia reports that the support she received from Stuarts was really good too. “My mentor, Amanda, was there every time I needed her or had a question and she was a big help. While I was at my old employer, I worked with Christine from Damar and when I moved to Stuarts, the Damar trainer was Tamara. They came in once a month and went through the work and I always knew they would be there too if I needed them.”

Olivia completed her End-Point Assessment (EPA) in November last year. “I thought the End-Point Assessment was really good,” she says. “The guy who came in from Pearson made me feel really comfortable and I liked the layout of it – observations first and then the discussion. That worked really well for me. I felt like I got to know him first and it put me at ease - it didn’t feel like an exam, even though it was.”

For Megan, the most challenging aspect of the apprenticeship was preparing for the EPA. “I didn’t fully know what questions I was going to be asked within the discussion and although your trainer prepares you with questions from previous experience and feedback from other students, you cannot be fully prepared especially if you do not know what calls/work is going to come in that day,” Megan says. “Knowing this, I allocated specific tasks for me to deal with during my assessment, to ensure most of the areas were covered and I could explain my step-by-step clearly in order to meet all criteria.

“The EPA went very quickly. It was hard to explain some of my tasks due to the fact that I cannot disclose personal victim details, but this was then covered during the discussion. The discussion was relaxed and the Pearson assessor was able to rephrase some of the questions if I didn’t fully understand.”

Christine Fegan, Training Team Manager at Damar, has guided the first cohort of apprentices through their programmes under the new standards. She says: “The main issue for both employers and students with the new standards was not really knowing what to expect from the EPA. There was uncertainty around who was going to do the assessing and what types of questions would be asked. Because we have worked closely with Pearson though, we had the understanding around these issues and knew what they were looking for. We’ve been able to adapt our own expectations and reassure students and employers due to the support we’ve had from Pearson. We’ve always done mock-ups of what will happen at the EPA for students; we weren’t too far off, but working with Pearson and using the guidance they have been able to give us has definitely improved that process.

“When my first students were going through the new standards it was pretty daunting because you’re wondering whether you’ve got everything right, or if you’ve missed something important. Since the first student had gone through the EPA successfully though and you could see that the support we’ve had has paid dividends, it’s far less of an issue,” says Christine.

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In an uncertain environment, it has been vital for Damar to work with partners who share its values. “Where this is the case, and it certainly has been with Pearson, we are confident that every effort will be made to find pragmatic but always professional solutions to the practical challenges thrown up by the early end-point-assessments,” Jonathan says. “This extends also to the learning journey. With many of the new standards there are no compulsory qualifications. This can sound challenging but if you are prepared to work pro-actively with employers it creates some exciting opportunities to tailor content to match their needs.”

The collaborative working relationship with Pearson has also proved effective as the first apprentices have approached EPA. End-point assessment has been new for all concerned and, in some cases, it has not been clear exactly what EPA would look like until towards the end of apprentices’ programmes

“We’ve all been learning together and, inevitably there have been bumps in the road. But, by learning from what has and hasn’t worked, we have been able to build our systems in partnership with Pearson’s and we are already seeing the process getting smoother,” Jonathan says.

The work is paying dividends. Damar has so far had more successful customer service practitioner apprentices than any other training provider working with Pearson and most of those who have passed have done so with a distinction, which is a good start and a reflection of the value of the work put in by both organisations.

The collaboration of Damar and Pearson has already demonstrated that it can produce excellent outcomes for learners and it has provided a solid base for what comes next.

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