Keeping up with demand and providing parity
Beyond the issues of profile and prestige, the biggest risk to the future growth of degree apprenticeships is that supply doesn’t keep up with rising demand. The apprenticeship levy system, while opening up an invaluable funding stream, has a number of downsides, and there has been a flurry of reports suggesting a variety of reforms. The key driver behind any changes must surely be to increase the supply of high-quality apprenticeships, especially from smaller employers in key growth industries. A number of proposals need further exploration — fully funding 16–18-year-old apprentices to create parity with their peers, reintroducing cash incentives for SMEs to take on new starts, increasing the flexibilities around sharing levy funding between companies, and greatly improving the availability of advice and guidance for both employers and applicants.
On the Journey to a Million, it’s important to expand not just the number of higher education opportunities, but the range and variety of options available. A false distinction is too often made between “technical” and “academic” education, while in reality university students study Medicine, Architecture and Engineering — all vocational subjects — alongside those taking academic courses like philosophy, literature or history, with neither being seen as having higher status than the other. The point is that there are enormous practical obstacles to simply expanding the volume of traditional degree courses, and a growing awareness that many technical and vocational subjects can be taught just as well, if not better, through the work-based learning approach integral to apprenticeships. An increase in the supply of higher apprenticeships will enable the whole system to work better for all students, by increasing choice and tailoring types of course to individual needs and preferences.
Meanwhile, UCAS will play a pivotal role in making the apprenticeship applicant journey much clearer and more straightforward. The Upside Down needs to become the Side by Side, and apprenticeships need to move from being Stranger Things to Familiar Friends in the expanding, multi-dimensional future of higher education.
i UCAS (2021), Where next? Improving the journey to becoming an apprentice.
ii Ibid.