We are starting to witness a sea change. Companies, parents and young people are beginning to understand what opportunities new apprenticeships offer and increasingly looking at alternatives to amassing student debt. We are seeing a shift in the quality and type of students applying.
But there’s an awful lot of work to be done to debunk the myth that apprenticeships are somehow for other people’s children, not your own. My own son turned down a university place for an apprenticeship, achieved a first-class honours degree in telecommunications as part of his apprenticeship, and now has a job at IBM and a promising career ahead. I’m a former apprentice myself – we’re proof of the pudding.
At the OU, we’ve made a multi-million pound investment in new higher and degree apprenticeships – we’ve worked with our academics to create bespoke apprenticeship programmes that are directly relevant and approved by professional standards. We aim to have well over 500 higher and degree-level apprentices during the next year or two.
The beauty of a degree apprenticeship is that employers can nurture all the soft skills of the workplace as well as ensuring young people acquire the academic and professional know-how they need. Employers benefit from gaining higher skills from people who are highly motivated and more likely to be loyal. Through degree and higher apprenticeships, we can help meet the skills shortage faced by many UK sectors: many employers say the education system isn’t providing the types of work-ready candidates they need.
For new apprentices, these apprenticeships are a new way to gain a prestigious degree – paid for and with good job prospects, usually within three or four years.
We’re used to putting ourselves into the minds of different types of learners and ensuring the content is what they need, delivered in a way they appreciate. An apprenticeship includes 20% off-the-job learning – and every employer will manage this in a different way.
Research shows the vast majority of students are excited at the prospect of learning with our technology, which allows flexibility. OU apprentices can fit in study hours whenever convenient without having to go away for a day at a university. They can use any device to see our resources such as webinars and tutor forums. They might be learning online with people, even senior managers, in different sectors around the country. There is a range of ways to make this work and we can give employers real examples.
We also have academic tutors who visit apprentices and help them consider what they’re learning and apply it to their work.
We’ve helped leading employers to recruit apprentices – it’s no good having professional qualifications without awareness of them among prospective students. Careers services in this country are currently in such disarray that the message isn’t often getting through.
Another key thing we offer is support for the employers. We’ve developed training for the people who manage the apprentices – they need to know how to support them, what their needs are. If companies can get that right, the programmes are more effective. We also train up mentors who can provide pastoral support – we’ve worked with leading graduate employers for years.
We’re adding new higher and degree apprenticeships in the next couple of years, in nursing, policing, accountancy, sports coaching and a postgraduate-level management qualification.
The OU is open entry so we look for candidates’ strengths rather than relying solely on their academic qualifications. Our approach is still rigorous – we’ll test candidates online and through interviews. Previous academic performance isn’t always an indicator of how well an employee will perform.
The best apprenticeships emerge when employers, universities and professional organisations work together to share best practice and create new standards. A well-designed programme with the right support will have real success.
To find out more about OU degree apprenticeships, visit open.ac.uk/business/apprenticeships
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