Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they have given or will give to enable charities to engage with the Trailblazer process to develop charity-specific apprenticeship standards, including in fields such as financial management and governance.

The Trailblazer process is open to any employer group that wishes to come forward to develop a new apprenticeship standard, provided it can meet the Department’s published criteria. Once a new standard is approved for development, a dedicated Relationship Manager is provided to support employers throughout the Trailblazer process.

We welcome any proposals for new standards from the charity sector, where they feel a specific occupation exists that is not already covered by a standard and would meet our criteria. We have recently received a proposal from a group of employers to develop a standard in the occupation of Voluntary and Community Sector Worker. We are currently reviewing the proposal and a decision will be made shortly on whether it meets our criteria to be approved for development.