The heads of foremost British organization faculties have vowed to thwart authorities ideas to axe the MBA apprenticeship by splitting the examine into two, with the bulk continue to being protected by the coaching programme.

Apprenticeships for senior executives have mushroomed adhering to authorities reforms to expertise funding that pressured businesses with annual payrolls greater than £3m to set aside an equivalent to .five per cent of this sum for spending on workplace coaching strategies.

Unhappiness that levy cash ended up being expended in this way, on programmes costing up to £18,000, prompted instruction secretary Gavin Williamson to search for a critique into the MBA apprenticeship with an eye to taking away it from the levy technique.

Professor David Oglethorpe, dean of Cranfield © College of Sheffield

The Office for Schooling has not still formally scrapped the MBA apprenticeship. But in the hottest checklist of apprenticeship specifications issued by the administering company, the prerequisite to get hold of an MBA or other masters diploma to full a senior leader qualification has been lower.

Nevertheless, David Oglethorpe, dean of Cranfield university’s university of administration, told the Monetary Situations that his institution would proceed to offer an MBA no matter what the outcome of the critique.

Underneath Mr Oglethorpe’s proposal, students would full a senior leader apprenticeship and then undertake an additional piece of coursework and pay an supplemental cost to get hold of an MBA. Some students could have to pay this demand, which could be up to £9,000, by themselves but it would continue to only be a portion of the total cost.

“I have been combating tooth and nail to say leave it as it is, but this implies we could continue to offer the qualification,” Mr Oglethorpe stated.

“The feedback we get from businesses is that it assists them bring in and keep essential team. A fifth of our ingestion arrive from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and 15 per cent had never ever been to university ahead of starting up the programme.”

“The senior leader apprenticeship standard has been mapped on to an MBA curriculum, generating it simple for us to offer an MBA for all those that would like one particular,” Mr Oglethorpe stated. “We would have to demarcate the two qualifications but that is rather uncomplicated to do.”

This way of funding an MBA has pros, Mr Oglethorpe additional. “Whilst the qualification stays component of an apprenticeship standard, you are unable to request employees to add to the value. If you could, it would mean they would have pores and skin in the game.”

Other organization university heads stated they ended up considering equivalent arrangements if the authorities made the decision to eliminate the MBA from apprenticeships.

“The MBA is seen as a significant issue on a CV so there will usually be an incentive to offer a route to obtaining this through the apprenticeship,” John Board, dean of Henley Small business Faculty.

“The greater hazard is that the authorities cuts the value businesses must pay for the apprenticeship, which would no lengthier make it feasible for faculties like us to offer our program. You would then be still left with providers who only pay lip services to the specifications necessary for large-high quality administration coaching.”

The notion of providing an MBA individually to the apprenticeship also been given the backing of the Chartered Management Institute, the accreditation entire body for administration instruction in the United kingdom.

“It would set a unusual precedent if the authorities stated that businesses are unable to pay for their employees to examine for this qualification if that is what they want to do,” Daisy Hooper, the CMI’s head of coverage and public affairs, stated.

“The apprenticeship levy has broadened accessibility to the MBA. Restricting this will shift it back again to turning into an elitist qualification.”

The Office for Schooling stated: “The instruction secretary asked the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technological Schooling to critique the senior leader apprenticeships standard to ensure it is assembly its aims and provides worth for money. The critique is ongoing.”