Core Skills Support for Apprentices

Whilst Warwick apprenticeship provision has been expanding rapidly however, we are falling well short of our WP aspirations as the majority of our apprentices still come from geographical areas with the highest participation in HE.
A key barrier for those from areas of lower HE participation is our high entry criteria, and in particular the requirement for an advanced level of maths competence for STEM programmes. To compound the issue, even if they make it on to the programme these apprentices can struggle with some key skills that we take for granted in our more traditional students, e.g. academic writing, experience of examinations, time management etc.
During the Summer of 2020 we received a grant from WIHEA which paid a student co-creator to help create the pilot phase for MOBIUS. This pilot, aimed at engineering apprentices, launched in October 2020 and the first learners are progressing through their individualised pathways. Through this next phase of the project we were also to broaden the scope of MOBIUS to incorporate Maths for Computer Science, the academic discipline with the second highest number of apprentices at Warwick.

Sam Hardy (Education Group)

Judith Brown (Education Group); Shaheen Charlwood (WMG); Sue Parr (WMG); Jesse Young (Education Group); Fiona Croshaw (Education Group)

A key part of the legacy of this project was to help make a Warwick education more accessible and inclusive.
The initial focus of this project was to provide individualised support for degree apprentices, of which there are nearly 1000 currently studying at Warwick. Over the next few years this number will grow considerably as we expand our apprenticeship provision to new disciplines and departments. All apprentices will benefit from the core skills provision that will be developed out of this project.
Our vision for MOBIUS was to create a platform that is available to all Warwick students who need or want additional support with maths. Any new training materials that are developed through this programme were made available for use as part of the wider efforts to deliver training in core skills to students on traditional programmes.

Students sitting together studying on their laptops

Through this project we continued the development of two areas of skills provision for apprentices:
- Maths Online Bridge for Individualised Support (MOBIUS) – an innovative online learning platform that provides an individualised study pathway for each learner to help them bridge gaps in their maths knowledge, and succeed in their degree
- Core skills for Apprentices – through this part of the project we scoped out additional non-maths skills that apprentices need to progress through their apprenticeships, to meet the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in their individual learning plans.

January 2021: Production of learning assets
February 2021: Moodle build; Testing; Launch of MOBIUS for Computer Science
March 2021: Development of diagnostic and end of programme maths tests for entry pathways
April 2021: Moodle build entry pathway; Testing; Launch MOBIUS Entry Pathways
April/May 2021: Research on core skills requirements for apprentices
May 2021: Review existing skills provision at Warwick
June 2021: Gap analysis
June/July 2021: Survey of additional support requirements of apprentices