Apprenticeships, Degree Apprenticeships and Sponsored Degrees

Apprentices are employed by companies and spend around 80% of their time at work and 20% studying.

There are different levels of apprenticeship, with schemes lasting a minimum of a year and up to five or six years for some degree apprenticeships. To find out more about the benefits, download and share the free UCAS Guide to Higher and Degree Apprenticeships.

School-leaver schemes

There are school-leaver schemes too, which are typically run by employers. These offer professional qualifications rather than academic ones. Such schemes are quite common in finance, professional services and retail management.

To confuse matters, you'll find the different terms used interchangeably. Students should focus on the detail of their chosen scheme to ensure they know exactly what they're getting.

Top tip

Students can apply for both university and work-related schemes if they want to keep options open.

Finding the right option

Applicants to all programmes will need to balance work and study, show that they're ready for the workplace and consider how they'll adjust to longer hours and shorter holidays than those at university.

When deciding which is right for them, students should consider:

How time will be split between work and study
What qualifications are on offer?
How long is the scheme?
Will they be paid?
Will they be employed?
Who will pay for any course fees?
What happens after the scheme?

What's the Apprenticeship Levy?

The term 'apprenticeship' is protected in law with standards developed by groups of employers. From April 2017, larger employers have to pay into a fund which can then be spent on apprenticeship training.

The Levy is part of the Government’s plan to increase the quality and quantity of apprenticeships and it is hoped that this and other changes will contribute to greater availability and awareness of this route.

Applying for an apprenticeship: a two-year timeline

Each company offering an apprenticeship has its own application process and timescale, so 6th form students will need to be on the ball to avoid missing out.

Lower Sixth

Research
Students should start to look at what might be on offer the following year.

They should make a note of any schemes that interest them, recording application deadlines and looking at ways to contact the organisations and find out more about them.

Vacancies can be found on the following websites: Find an Apprenticeship, Ucas Careerfinder, All About School Leavers, Not Going To Uni and Milkround School Leavers.

Top tips

For most schemes, students will apply directly to the employer.
Encourage your students to check start dates closely, as some opportunities begin before the end of the school year. Ucas Careerfinder features a handy start-date filter to avoid this pitfall.
Suggest they follow companies on social media for the latest news on recruitment; they could even make contact with employers this way.
Students should also search websites of local employers and local universities for relevant opportunities.

Experience
Some of the most competitive schemes receive hundreds of applications per place, with employers looking for the full package of qualifications, skills and experience.

Students should look out for summer schools, site visits and insight days to build experience and knowledge, and test out ideas about jobs.

Deadlines for some summer schools fall as early as January, but insight days don't tend to be booked quite so far in advance. Information on these events can be found on some of the websites listed above.

Making early contact with a specific company before applying can pay off. Experience in all forms can be beneficial. Volunteering, part-time work, specific hobbies and interests or helping out family and friends might be relevant too.

Upper Sixth

Preparation
Pupils could start by writing a job-focused personal statement which highlights their selling points and relevant skills, but is also backed up with evidence. Remember this will be different to a Ucas personal statement (likely to be more subject-led) and can be adapted and targeted later to suit the needs of a specific vacancy.

Pupils would benefit from preparing a CV, using it as an exercise to identify what might give them the edge. Now might be a good time to have a mock interview or to ask a professional to check over CVs or sample statements.

Top tip

Most post-A-level programmes ask for at least two A-levels at grade C, with some demanding three of the highest grades.

Application time

One of the challenges of work-based schemes is that there is no fixed application time or method of applying. Students will need to keep looking and applying from autumn onwards to make sure they don't miss out.

Registering with and regularly checking the websites listed above should help. This is where the research carried out in the Lower Sixth should pay off too, as pupils will have an idea of the types of vacancies that might be coming up, and when.

The recruitment processes of large firms can be very similar to graduate recruitment, involving online assessments, online interviews, presentations, recruitment centres and so on. Smaller firms might follow a less structured process, including recruiting later on in the year.

Top tip

A bit of creative research into a company really helps when targeting an application.

Higher and Degree Apprenticeships

If you thought apprenticeships were just for 16 year-olds leaving school, it’s time to take another look.

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Futures