Apprentice Outcomes Rolling Survey

SDS has changed the way we survey apprentices. 

Background 

SDS previously collected feedback about training from Foundation (FA), Modern (MA) and Graduate (GA) apprentices through online surveys. These were sent to all apprentices at a certain point during their training and after they had left training (regardless of whether they had completed their training or not). 

Our Evaluation and Research team has created a new automated rolling approach for surveying apprentices, which will be more efficient, robust, and will provide better value for money. 

Apprentice surveys 

The automated rolling surveys will be issued to all apprentices when they reach three specific points in their apprenticeship: 

• The in-training survey will be sent to FAs/MAs/GAs about six months after their start date. The survey will include questions about how they found out about theiry apprenticeship, why they decided to start it, their perceptions of quality of training and their satisfaction with training. 
• The leavers survey will be distributed to FA/MA/GAs around three months after they leave to understand post training destinations and immediate outcomes/benefits. This will also be sent to people who leave training early and do not complete their training to try to understand more about why they did not complete. 
• The short-term outcomes survey which will be distributed to FA/MA/GAs around 15 months after leaving to understand short-term outcomes/benefits. Again, this will be sent to both completers and non-completers.  

The surveys will be linked to FIPs which will tell us when an apprentice has reached the specific time to be sent the survey. Apprentices will be sent an email with their personal link to the survey.  The surveys will be completed online and will be accessible on all devices including smart phones and tablets. Each survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. 

Benefits 

SDS’ previous approach to surveying apprentices could provide us with only a ‘snapshot’ of apprentices’ views at a particular time. The new surveys are ‘rolling’ and sent out whenever apprentices reach certain dates. This means that the evidence will be accruing as more apprentices reach these dates. The new automated rolling approach will provide a bigger volume of data in time which will allow us to do a range of more in-depth analysis, including looking at changes over time.  As with previous surveys, the results will be published on SDS corporate site.    

Providers can embed this information within induction and review processes, highlighting to apprentices that they will receive surveys throughout their training and also after they have completed.