The Apprentice Protection Plan has been developed to address potential risks to the continuation of study of apprentices on our higher level accredited programmes.
This plan outlines the measures Multiverse has instituted to protect apprentices in the event that a risk to the continuation of their studies should crystallise. Specific events, risks and their mitigations are outlined below. This plan is specific to apprentices on Multiverse degree apprenticeship programmes.
The Apprentice Protection Plan has been submitted to our higher education regulators, the Office for Students, and will be made publicly available on our website. It can also be accessed via the apprentice’s Training Plan, a document which they and their manager must sign prior to the commencement of their apprenticeship.
The Apprentice Protection Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis as part of the policies audit at the Academic Quality Council to ensure the risks and mitigations remain relevant.
Multiverse provides training to individuals who are in work. As such, the cost of training and any associated fees are paid by the employer, not the apprentice. This means that all apprentices receive free training and no apprentices are on bursaries or other funding schemes. However, we do have apprentices from a diverse range of backgrounds and circumstances on our programmes and we evaluate risks against their needs.
We consider, having reviewed the risk register and for reasons outlined below, the following risks are unlikely to crystallise.
Closure of Multiverse due to financial viability
The risk that Multiverse would cease its operations for reasons of financial viability is very unlikely. We have received $130 million in series C funding (approximately £95.5 million), $220 million in series D funding (approximately £160 million) and $70 million in series E funding (approximately £52 million). Furthermore, we are continuing to sustainably grow each year. As such, we believe that Multiverse will remain in a position to continue delivering apprenticeships.
Inadequate facilities
The risk of not having enough delivery space to house our growing number of apprentices is low. This is because Multiverse primarily has a remote-first delivery approach with the overwhelming majority of teaching and learning occurring online. Employers who wish to have in-person touch points are responsible for facilitating the space within their offices which Multiverse staff members will travel to. As such, there is low risk of inadequate facilities.
In the event that an employer cannot host in-person touch points with apprentices, Multiverse has a large office space including a 65-person conference room in Paddington, London and would be able to host apprentices within the building for any training. If apprentices are unable to access our internal video conferencing platform for training, alternative platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet are also made available. Software accessibility and other technical requirements are a part of the sales process at Multiverse, with clients receiving full visibility of the tools necessary to join the programme.
The risk of having inadequate academic facilities is also low. Multiverse has a contract with the online library Perlego to ensure adequate access to academic texts and books. We have chosen this provider because of their catalogue of up-to-date textbooks and materials which are aligned with our courses related to data science, computer science and digital transformation. Due to the fast-paced nature of these courses, we also benefit from open-source journals and software which informs our curriculum and is available online.
Apprentice cohorts not running
The risk of apprentice cohorts not running is low. All our programmes aim to launch at least one cohort per quarter, meaning we have at least four programme starts per year. In the event that a cohort does not run in a quarter, another cohort will likely run the following quarter. This means that apprentices do not have to wait more than three months to join a Multiverse apprenticeship programme.
Attracting apprentices to our programmes
The risk that we will not attract apprentices to our programmes is low. Over 70% of our apprentices are referred directly via their employer as part of their ongoing professional development. As part of establishing the relationship they have identified the strategic need within the business and supported Multiverse to run campaigns and information events to spark interest in the offering. This often comes with a mandate from senior leadership that this is a priority for the business. We work with large brands such as Google, Facebook, KPMG and use these to leverage our own brand within the market. All of our programmes are subject to quarterly monitoring reviews which identify if there is a risk around commercial productivity. If so, this is escalated to the Academic Quality Council to establish and agree an action plan for improving performance.
Additionally, our degree programmes have been designed as a pathway from our Level 4 programmes, meaning there is an existing pool of apprentices who will be interested in progressing.
In the event that apprentices are not recruited to join a cohort, Multiverse will delay the cohort launch until the following quarter and continue recruitment of apprentices. This is directly linked to section C which discusses the frequency of cohort launches at Multiverse.
Disruption of studies due to pandemic
The risk of disruption of studies due to COVID or other pandemics is low since all of Multiverse’s teaching and learning is done remotely. There are the options of two in-person touch points but those can be transferred online without risk of disruption to studies.
Deregistration or loss of Degree Awarding Powers
Given that Multiverse was subject to intense scrutiny during the process to seek registration and gain New Degree Awarding Powers, and the subsequent monitoring of Multiverse to ensure it meets its ongoing conditions, it is an unlikely event that Multiverse will be deregistered or lose its Degree Awarding Powers. Our overall approach to gaining, then maintaining registration centres on governance backed up by formal processes and mechanisms for monitoring.
In the event that Multiverse is deregistered or loses its Degree Awarding Powers, it would likely occur on a phased basis meaning Multiverse will be able to teach out existing students on higher level accredited programmes. If this is not acceptable to the regulators, Multiverse will support apprentices to transfer to an alternate provider and ensure that full academic records, proof of credit accumulation, and workplace activity is available to the apprentice.
Multiverse considers that the following risks are moderate and more likely to occur. Details on mitigating these risks will be outlined in section two.
Lack of staff to deliver technical modules
The risk of having a lack of staff to deliver technical modules within our programmes is moderate since hiring tutors who have both technical expertise and coaching experience can take up to 6 months. This risk would affect apprentices who are undertaking specialised programmes, and based on our evidence this group does not have any specific special needs.
Phasing out specific programmes
The risk that we will phase out specific programmes is moderate. This is because all our programmes go through an employer validation process to ensure they are commercially viable. However, since Multiverse is a commercial organisation responding to the changing nature of the labour market, there may be situations where our programmes are no longer relevant and we have encountered this in the past.
There are two key risks identified as “moderate” which are more likely to crystallise than the other risks identified.
Risk A: Lack of sufficiently qualified staff to deliver specialist modules.
As an institution we will be developing and delivering the most up-to-date industry curriculum relevant for our clients and apprentices. Although over 70% of staff on our data programmes currently hold a Masters or PhD qualification, there is a risk that as we grow we will struggle to keep up with the demand for those with specialist knowledge and skills to meet the academic requirements of higher education staff.
For our Level 4 provision, we have devised specialist onboarding which ensures new staff have the knowledge and skills to be successful Multiverse coaches and instructors prior to being apprentice-facing. This means that we can identify those with subject adjacent knowledge and provide them with the space and professional development to teach on specialist programmes such as software engineering and data analytics. We train our staff to deliver programmes end to end. As we do not offer optional modules, any staff member on this programme team can pick up delivery even if they were not originally allocated to teach on it.
To mitigate this risk for our Level 5 and 6 programmes where we require more specialist knowledge, we have the following mitigations in place to deal with this:
Multiverse also uses data from previous quarters and sales forecast data to predict our hiring needs. This data is used by the Delivery Operations team and the internal recruitment team to ensure that there is sufficient time to hire coaches and tutors with the requisite skills and knowledge. In the event that we do not have enough staff recruited, Multiverse would lessen the number of cohorts per year from at least four to two and have larger cohort sizes. If there was a cohort due to start without enough technical staff, the cohort would not launch until there were adequate coaches and tutors available to support the cohort - likely until the following quarter (three months after the original start time). If this did occur, Multiverse would work with the apprentices and their employers to ensure they were kept up to date with any changes being made, alongside updates on their new delivery plan and any materials they could begin to engage with prior to the cohort launch to prepare themselves.
Risk B: The risk of phasing out programmes.
When developing our programmes we run an employer validation process which assesses the attractiveness of our programmes to potential clients and apprentices. As such, when launching a programme we are confident that it will be appropriate for our target audiences.
However, within the technical disciplines that we operate - specifically data science, software engineering, and digital marketing - processes and technologies are evolving rapidly meaning that some of our curriculum may be out of date. Technical Curriculum Leads work with our Domain Quality and Impact team to monitor the effectiveness of our programmes. This includes gathering feedback via our clients on the return on investment and value that apprentices are adding to the business. If we identify a product that is underperforming or is getting consistent feedback from employers about its suitability and relevance, we will escalate this to the Programme Improvement Review Group with an action plan, either to change or improve the programme or to cease the programme. We do have a policy which outlines what we do when we decide to stop running a programme and how to create a teach out plan.
In the case that a programme in its whole is no longer relevant for our apprentices and clients and needs to be discontinued, we have an established “teach out” plan which we have already employed once with one of our programmes. The “teach out” plan ensures that all apprentices who are already on programme have the opportunity to finish their learning and gain their award before the programme is discontinued.
In the event this risk crystallises, apprentices on the programme will be informed that it is to be discontinued alongside the “teach out” plan which would outline clearly that they are entitled to completing their apprenticeship programme. All apprentices will be supported to the completion of their apprenticeship and for those that did not want to continue, all exit awards and credits would be made available via a transcript for apprentices wishing to transfer. Apprentices would be supported by their coach throughout the continuation and completion of the programme with more tailored support as the programme comes to a close.
As an apprenticeship provider, there are no fees passed on to our apprentices and all training costs are paid by the employers. However, we have measures in place to protect employers from fees if an apprentice of theirs discontinues or withdraws from the programme.
Firstly, as per the Apprenticeship Funding Rules, our clients pay us on a monthly basis for the training through a secure system - the Apprenticeship Service (AS). There are no up-front fees for our clients, rather we get paid a lump sum of 20% of the value of the apprenticeship upon completion. The remaining 80% is paid on a monthly basis during the duration of the apprenticeship, provided ‘active learning’ takes place during this period.
All employers receive a contract upon agreeing to the terms of the apprenticeship which stipulate the above terms. This system ensures that only the cost of training received has been paid.
Our Apprentice Protection Plan will be made visible to all our apprentices on our website. During programme inductions, Multiverse coaches will direct apprentices to our website for relevant and up-to-date information, including the Protection Plan and “teach out” plan. The information will also be linked to our Virtual Learning Environment [my.multiverse] and in the apprentice Training Plan.
Our apprentices and employers will be informed about any material changes to their programme with at least 1 month’s notice. These changes will be communicated by the apprentice’s coach. Relevant information will also be provided to the apprentice’s employers who will receive information from their designated “Customer Value Partner”.