The Association welcomed the announcement from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) that a new single-degree level ‘Building Services Engineer’ (BSE) apprenticeship would be launched in 2025.

The process was led by the Technical Apprenticeship Consortium (TAC), which brings together employers and training specialists, with courses leading to the new apprenticeship expected to start in the spring of 2025 subject to final approval from the Secretary of State for Education.

The apprenticeships are expected to have government funding support of up to £27,000 per applicant, and universities and colleges are expected to start reviewing their courses next year.

The new single apprenticeship brings together the former Building Services Design Engineer (ST0372), which was first launched in October 2017, and Building Services Engineering Site Management (ST0040), which started in May 2018.

These two courses led to the accreditation of more than 900 apprentices with degrees recognised by CIBSE – the sector’s chartering body – with many of the successful students registering with the Engineering Council as Incorporated Engineers (IEng).

However, employers had called for changes to better reflect their needs and the aspirations of a new generation of engineers.

The creation of ‘trailblazer’ groups also enabled more direct feedback from employers into the content of apprentice training and TAC was able to draw on this to update the degree-level qualifications.

The new approach will considerably reduce the burden of assessment on apprentices; with the final dissertation element amended to deliver a technical project which can support progression to the professional review stage, according to IfATE.

It is also hoped that the new approach will reduce the number of candidates who withdraw without completing the process which can last up to five years.