{"id":44633,"date":"2025-11-18T16:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=44633"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:53:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:53:05","slug":"british-woodworking-federation-bwf-leads-coalition-across-construction-to-protect-future-of-apprenticeships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=44633","title":{"rendered":"British Woodworking Federation (BWF) leads coalition across construction to protect future of apprenticeships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) leads a coalition of organisations across the construction sector to protect the future of apprenticeships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The BWF writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In June the BWF attended a meeting with Skills England to work through the proposals that the Government were introducing to reform apprenticeships in England. This consisted of two major changes;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To reduce the overall time it takes to deliver an apprenticeship to around 8 months,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To reform the assessment and end point process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As a member of the level 2 in Carpentry and Joinery apprenticeship trailblazer, the BWF were invited to join the review for one of the chosen five \u2018test pilots\u2019 which has enabled us to unpick, on behalf of our members, what the changes mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What does this mean for apprenticeships?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, if the proposed changes are implemented this will have a negative impact; casting doubt on the competence of an individual who undertakes the Site Carpentry and Joinery Level 2 apprenticeship, but more fundamentally it effects every apprenticeship across all levels in England. If this reform goes through, Skills England will be looking to mirror this process for every apprenticeship framework from level 2 up to the highest level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Where are we now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since June, the BWF has been vehemently fighting the reforms on behalf of the sector but has sadly found that at every stage our feedback has been ignored or brushed aside by the Government, which has been incredibly frustrating and infuriating. Through months of networking and collaborating with as many organisations as possible and working through the Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) \u2013 in particular Sector Lead Group 10 Installer and Trades \u2013 the BWF is now leading a coalition of 23 organisations from across the construction sector to lobby Government and challenge the apprenticeship reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Letter to the Prime Minister<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A letter outlining the coalitions concerns was issued to the Prime Minister, Skills Minister, Secretary of State for the DWP and many more parliamentarians on Monday 20 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What can you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Download our letter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Construction-Coalition-Letter-Apprenticeship-Reforms_Letter-to-the-Government_Final_20_10_2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a>\u00a0and use this to write to your local MP\u2019s or influential contacts and help challenge the proposed reforms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to find out more, please contact BWF CEO Helen Hewitt, helen.hewitt@bwf.org.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwf.org.uk\/uncategorised\/the-bwf-leads-a-coalition-of-organisations-across-the-construction-sector-to-protect-the-future-of-apprenticeships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read more&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) leads a coalition of organisations across the construction sector to protect the future of apprenticeships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[132,23,9,22,586],"class_list":["post-44633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog","tag-apprenticeship","tag-expertise","tag-government","tag-skills","tag-woodworking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44634,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44633\/revisions\/44634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}