To wonder if apprenticeships are a decent alternative?

[HateWarts]

Just that really.
Wnat have you been your or your children’s experience of them?

Op what subject area is it for?

There is some great apprenticeships in place, they run through training providers (personally I would look at colleges etc to provide - aaa went bust last year leaving loads in the lurch so would be avoiding some of those private training providers).

Some employers see it as cheap labour, some see it as training up future workers...I guess you need to interview and talk to them as much as poss to establish which.

Also look at end point assessment programmes and if they would fit in with the subject grouping you are looking at.

My ds is v bright and could have done A levels uni etc but he hated school and just wanted to leave. Now he has a good apprenticeship as an electrian with a big commercial company and he is thriving. So yes I think that some people suit apprenticeships and there's some good ones out there.

I wish I'd had the chance to do an apprenticeship rather than a degree. And yes people with degrees are getting jobs but an awful lot of people are horrendously underemployed. I just left a call centre job (over minimum wage but barely) where 80% of people had a second degree or a masters, two people had PhDs. The other 20% were a mix of people with degrees and people with no formal qualifications.

10 years out from university and I'm now considering retraining in something vocational.

Ds is doing an accountancy apprenticeship. Will get to the same level as graduates in 5 years instead of 6, will earn money for all those years and will have no debt at the end. The graduates on the other hand will earn no money for three of those years and have a huge debt.

It's definitely not the easy option though. The exams are hard, there are long hours and no allowances are made for the fact he is only 18 with no life experience, rather than a graduate who is more mature. They do exactly the same work as the graduates.

Look out for open evenings OP. I attended a few with dd and you can get a feel of the company itself. There were present apprentices at the open evening so dd had a chat with a few of them and realised it was what she wanted to do. Good luck to your dc.

Yes there are so many out there now!

My brother did an entry level engineering Apprenticeship with BAE and now they are paying for him to do a master's degree. He is more or less guaranteed a job at the end of it and he'll have a degree without debt. From what I can see most of the Defence Industry do this, he's on a good wage too!

I honestly wish I'd done an apprenticeship degree instead of my degree but these options weren't around when I was.

Sorry I meant a degree not masters degree but that's an option too ^

I recently organised a publicity event for Modern Apprentice week, and got to meet all the MAs who were at differing stages in the programme.

I was genuinely amazed at the opportunity this is, they are gaining great experience in government across all directorates and the career path is excellent too.