To ask what you really think of apprenticeship s

[Soannoyingititchessobad]

My year 13 DS is looking at apprenticeships for his next step. We’ve seen some great ones and this route seems ideal for him. His girlfriend has already secured a great degree apprenticeship with an international company and will earn a good salary whilst getting this degree and experience.

DS’s girlfriend is very bright and is doing very academic A levels and is likely to do very well in them. She is really happy with the apprenticeship route and we are so proud of her.

This is my AIBU. Lots of my friends have said ‘I can’t believe she’s doing an apprenticeship. What a waste. She should be going to Uni because she’s so bright’. I’m really shocked. My family (siblings, husband, his family) have all been to Uni but see apprenticeships as an equally great career path. I just wanted to know what others think - is the general feeling really that apprenticeships are inferior to a degree and only for people who aren’t really academic?

I know people will say ‘do what’s right for your kid and ignore others’ thoughts’ but it just sparked an interest in me and wanted to understand what others think

My middle ds (21) has just started a level 5 apprenticeship with a fantastic organisation after 2.5 years slugging it out in a shitty retail job. His apprenticeship salary is £26k. He’s on a 2 year course and will get the equivalent of a foundation degree and significant industry training which has huge opportunities worldwide. It’s a great move for him. I’m encouraging my youngest to do similar. I think university is a scam at the moment and definitely not worth the £60k debt

Apprenticeship are very difficult to get. Hugely competitive.

My ds is a straight A student and didn’t want to go to uni . He’s just about to he into his final year of apprenticeship and he’s doing really well whilst obtaining a hnc and a guaranteed very well paid job when he finishes

Mine is doing a retail apprenticeship. I think apprenticeships are the better route for certain careers as you earn and learn. I don’t think they are easy to get into however as I worry that a lot more of those who have attained uni grades may take spaces of those who struggle in formal education but it will save the massive student debt and a lot of good life skills are learnt early. I think I would have preferred it to Uni. I hated the environment but was interested in learning.

I think there is a stigma associated that you can’t get into uni which is utter nonsense and I much prefer the idea of mine paying her way in society early doors than wasting her time in a course that may not lead to lots of careers.

OP, I honestly think other than for careers that need a degree, or for the very academically inclined, apprenticeships (or failing that, sandwich course degrees) are the way forward. Obviously, it has to be the right sort of apprenticeship, and there is fierce competition for them. A humanities degree trains you for nothing so when you finish it, whatever you’re going to do, you’ll need some training. I’d be pleased that your DC want to do apprenticeships - more power to their elbow (and no student debt).

They are a good way to get a proper qualification that is paid for, and you get work experience and money too.

Saying that, some are utter bullshit and are just a way to get cheap labour. I was in Tesco a while back and there was an announcement on the tannoy about apprenticeships in retail, and one of the staff laughed out loud and said what a joke it was.

Some people are mixing up different types of apprenticeships. The op was discussing degree apprenticeships.

My DS has just completed his and has a permanent job with a huge employer. There are under 50,000 degree level apprenticeships available, the success rate of being accepted is just under 1%. He is already on 40k PA, had his tuition fees paid so that’s almost 30k saved plus was paid 25k rising to 30k during his years of study.

Regarding contact hours, for some courses it’s as little as 9 hours a week and then self directed study. When DS was on campus he was there from 8.30 to 5.30 with an hour for lunch.

DH and in I worked in academia for 25 and 30 years and both did a stint in admissions. We were delighted when he was accepted and if people are snobby about it they are completley misguided.

My niece was a health care assistant and was so enthusiastic and hard working they encouraged her to apply for a nursing apprenticeship as a mature student. She did her 2nd year during covid and graduated whilst raising 2 young children her DH is a decent parent and supportive.She has now taken a Masters and has done exceptionally well.

I do think some employers offering lower level apprenticeships do take advantage.

My preference tbh would be for a degree apprenticeship. We have some very talented young people on our apprenticeship schemes (Big 4).

DC has recently finished a degree apprenticeship and now has 4y experience, a first class degree and no student debt.

If your chosen career has a degree apprenticeship option, it's the way to go.
No debt, a salary whilst you study and you are gaining proper work experience .
Degree apprenticeships are very competitive and more difficult to secure, when compared to a place at university.
Your friends have a dated view of higher education tbh.

Interesting - thanks again!

Thanks for the replies - it was just a sanity check post really. Wanting to see if there were any downsides I hadn’t seen.

i know they only go to uni once a week but im sure that day is really intensive learning (im sure i only had about 12 hours of lectures a week in my business degree!) and then you learn theory on the job too, so im not worried about not learning enough theory

The main downsides I saw were...

The competitive ones have a rigourous assessment process. Thats not for everyone. I think my son was OK because he had no expectations given his GCSEs (he was literally on their minimum requirements for that) but because he was so, genuinely, passionate about the subject he had so much to talk about and that, in itself, made interviews more like conversations, and helped him relax. I think anyone trying to "game" a system.would find it very hard to keep that up for such a long period under different assessments.

Then you have the independence needed to source accommodation on your own. The apron strings really are cut. Some are ready for that at 18 but many are not. University and their support services and guaranteed accommodation offers are a choice for some.

Final.point - the Uni and degree content isnt your choice. If it matters to you to have a certain Uni on your CV forever or to do a particular course or maybe have some flexibility (like joint honours etc) - then Uni is the right choice.

My DSs degree is not a Russell Group level but of course hes unlikely to have gone to a RG with his academics anyway. Those pulling of A stars etc may well have more to consider.

That’s a good point about locations and accommodation. At 18 (17 when I applied to uni as I’m Scottish) I would not have been ready to just find a random houseshare on gumtree or whatever.
Do degree apprenticeships rely on the parents living somewhere near the jobs? Or is there support to find housing? Private renting is quite a minefield.

My ds has been doing a degree apprenticeship for the last 5 years and will graduate in a few months. He has thrived and earning good money.
He didnt go the normal route. He started as a temp, got offered a job then later offered the apprenticeship.

Yes I think you need to live near the apprenticeship unless the company provides accommodation (some do - national grid, for example). We live in London so lots of opportunities here, but I have seen so many degree apprenticeships country-wide

So, when my son decided he wanted to do an apprenticeship, we said he should choose the right one from any offers, anywherr in the country, and we would pay his rent as we had paid his DSs rent during University.

He applied to 3 (I think). The applications and process was long and each application had to be tailored which he found challenging as hes dyslexic. But he did it.

One he got nowhere with. One they said he had got through to the assessment centre and wait for a date, but the next contact was 6 months later when they said they had no places left. The third he went all the way.

When the letter arrived there was no help for accommodation. He looked on spareroom, found some professional houseshares (because he wasnt exempt for CT) and we visited them as it was 4 hours from home. He picked one that wasnt available until 7 days after he started but he really gelled with the live-in owner, so he booked a hotel for 7 days to make up the difference.

He says when we dropped him at the hotel it was the hardest day of his life.

But, 10 years on, hes still living in the area - in his own house now and with his own lodger! So, it was an experience that has come around on itself!

As others say, it appears some may offer accommodation. Just treat every apprenticeship is its own and make sure your young adult researches stuff like this as they all differ.

Ultimately, we didnt need to pay his rent as the pay for that particular offer was very good.

This

a degree apprenticeship really is the jackpot of post school opportunities. A degree for the cost of registration, a couple hundred pounds, starting work as a new graduate but with three or four years working experience under your belt puts you ahead of anyone who has just gone the university route.

the only downside is the really fierce competition to secure a place on a degree apprenticeship.

Anyone rubbishing apprenticeships is likely thinking of the kind which do not include external qualifications.

Exactly this. Degree apprenticeships are tough - working alongside the study, so in some ways are more of an achievement than a regular degree. And when her peers graduate, they will only have a degree. She will also have a ton of work experience. They really don’t know what they are talking about.

I don’t think your friends know what degree apprenticeships are.

My views on them? They are great but like gold dust.

My views on non-degree apprenticeships-again, there are not nearly enough of them and the pupils that may have once chosen them (less academic), can’t get on them as they don’t have maths or English GCSE so can’t be accepted with the appropriate funding.

My views on degrees-what are we doing to our kids that means they are starting working life with £50k of debt and unable to get a job? The debt is going up £3k a year in interest before they are earning a penny.

My nephew did a degree apprenticeship in marketing instead of taking up an offered university place at his local university. He decided that he did not want the debt at the end of the course and was a bit fed up of studying after his A levels.

At first he was on minimum wages although his remote study costs were covered. After a year he started to earn a decent salary and was promoted a couple of times once his studying was finished. He is now 23 and has changed jobs and earns over £60,000 a year, he has no debt and is saving hard to buy a house very soon.

I am so proud of him for going against the trend, most of his friends went to university and initially his parents put pressure on him to take a gap year and then go. I think he does regret slightly not going travelling like others did but he can afford to go on lovely holidays!

My dd had a uni place due to start Sept 25 in accountancy. It was a 4 year course. In April 25 she decided she was not prepared to land herself with all the debt and wrote round a load of accountancy firms asking for an apprenticeship. She was accepted by a couple and started a few weeks later at one of them.
They are paying her minimum wage and her college fees. She attends college 1 day a week. It will take 5 years going this route but at the end she will be a fully chartered accountant and will have 5 years work experience under her belt.

We also have 4 apprentices where I work. Again fees fully paid, a degree at the end and years of work experience. Most importantly, no debt!

I think they are brilliant.

Modern apprentices are very different from the 70/80’s. This route has overtaken my employers graduant program and the participants are doing really well.

Some of them are really good. A lot of my friends who did them earn more than I do, DH did one and he earns more than a lot of people I know who just have degrees. There are some really shitty and exploitative ones, or at least there were 10 years ago when I was looking into it.

It all depends on what you want. I went to uni to do IR and quantitative methods, now I’m a maths tutor. I did my degree because I loved politics and IR and enjoyed learning in the college/university environment. I would love to go back and do another degree in later life if I can - I just like school I guess. DH is bright but struggled to learn in college and needed practical application for what he learned, he really needs a hands on approach so his apprenticeship was preferable for him. He was also very focused on earning money and a career while I was all about the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of it. It depends on the person.

But apprenticeships are either 95% or 100% funded by the government? It’s arguably a very small outlay to have a member of staff who is fully trained to your methods/standards who is likely to have a lot of loyalty to you