Degree Apprenticeships

Combining work and study i.e. earning while obtaining a degree, is becoming a viable alternative for our students but finding out what is available is not straightforward at time of writing (Nov 2022) and will no doubt change over time but here's a quick starter to help teachers when advising their students.

Summary

An apprenticeship is a real job where you learn, gain experience and get paid. You would be an employee with a contract of employment and holiday leave, and by the end of the apprenticeship, you'll have the right skills and knowledge needed for your chosen career.
 
As an apprentice you’ll:

• learn and train for a specific job role with hands-on experience in a real job
• get paid and receive holiday leave
• study for at least 20% of your working hours - usually at a college, university or with a training provider
• complete assessments during and at the end of your apprenticeship
• be on a career path with lots of future potential
• You can start an apprenticeship whether you’re just starting your career, want a change or if you're upskilling in your current job.

Entry Requirements

To start an apprenticeship, you must:

• be 16 or over
• not already be in full-time education
• live in England

Note:

• The process starts with the employer
• It is occupation centric (i.e. listed by role such as software engineer, rather than subject such as computer science
• There is no set timetable for when vacancies appear
• How employers work with their learning providers also varies but employers are starting to move to a timetable that works better alongside the UCAS application window.

Starting point

The government maintains the Find an apprenticeship site (https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship) but it has its quirks!  Better to use the Browse option rather than Search setting the category to “Information and Communication Technology”, and level to “Degree” and "England". 

You might also try: https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/apprentices/browse-apprenticeships

Other places to look

1. Careers leads may already know about the Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge for schools and colleges programme. About ASK - Amazing Apprenticeships
2. Many larger providers and employers will keep general information about their apprenticeship options up on their sites all year round, so they’re worth searching out to share with students. Also, services like https://www.getmyfirstjob.co.uk and https://www.ratemyapprenticeship.co.uk/ (Specifically: https://www.ratemyapprenticeship.co.uk/degree-apprenticeships for degree apprenticeships)
3. Explore the IfATE Occupational Map for Digital at Occupational Maps / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education 1 It will show you the various Apprenticeship Standards in the Digital space, and how they relate to career pathways.
4. Choose one of the Apprenticeship Standards from the map, e.g. Digital and technology solutions professional (integrated degree) / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and you will find a link from there to a list of providers (both academic and independent training providers).
5. An alternative route into the standards is this page - filter on Digital, Level 6, and “available for delivery” Apprenticeship search / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
6. Alongside the regular data releases from DfE, they have an experimental interactive data tool here Microsoft Power BI 1 You can use that to see the number of apprenticeship starts in ICT/Digital, filtering on “Higher level” to get a clearer view on those at L4+. There’s also a provider cut, so you can see which providers are doing the most in ICT/Digital. This is a simplistic view onto the data - for full detail you need to download the data from DfE.
7. The Student Apprenticeships site lists the universities offering degree apprenticeships (across all disciplines), to which should be added The Open University
8. One can find further information on RateMyApprenticeship site here. Students can find information about a wide variety of apprenticeships and the advantages compared to a degree on the field of their choice. They can click on the apprenticeships available through the site or search for one, find out about them and apply.

According to that DfE PowerBI, it looks like 2390 degree level starts in digital up to the end of Q3 of the 21-22 academic year.

Further support

• The National Careers Service. They offer free, impartial careers advice to anyone over the age of 13 in England. Their website has a lot of great resources available including a skills assessment, over 800 career profiles, and they can also support with creating a CV and cover letter: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/.  The service is available 8am until 8pm Monday-Friday, and 10am until 5pm on Saturdays. You can call them on 0800 100 900, or on their website you can also webchat, email and request a call back.
• The experiences of other apprentices can be found here: https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/apprentices/real-stories
• The Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) is a group of employers and former/current apprentices who volunteer their time to encourage more employers to use high-quality apprenticeships, while inspiring more young people to pursue high-quality apprenticeships as a vibrant career route.
   
  Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (apprenticeships.gov.uk)
   
  The AAN network includes nine regions, and the regional chairs of these networks attend national meetings.
   
  Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (apprenticeships.gov.uk)

Ideally ...

What would be really useful (but haven’t found yet) is a table of providers next to the companies providing the apprenticeship with another column showing application timeframe and a link for more information.

If that exists please add it here!