Anyone looking at unis out of UK to save on fees/costs? Or lower grades?

[kittybelle]

But with similar ranking/status? Have come across this recently with friends dc - going to Cyrus to do medicine and Bulgaria to do dentistry....

I'm not questioning that apprenticeships can be a good alternative route for some careers. Or that they can be competitive and/or well paid. What I'm questioning (and I think other people too) is how widely available such positions are. It takes more than one link to demonstrate that!

did anyone else have to google to find out what a blue chip company is?

I chose one in the top 10 list (Anglo American) and the only apprenticeships I could find for it are in Dawson Australia. Who wants to better that and show how many apprenticeships they'll be offering in the UK this yr, at what terms and necessary qualifications, and how many applicants they expect? (all the stuff I wanted to know).

Scroll down on this page and it will give you a list of top blue chips offering higher apprenticeship schemes:

www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/?gclid=CNLG3rWu-cACFRMatAodTC0AtQ

Then take a look at this page - decide what sector/career you want to work in - then click on the discipline to find the top blue chips offering higher apprenticeships in this area;

www.apprenticeships.org.uk/employers/higher-apprenticeships/higher-apprenticeships-frameworks.aspx

Cool. Although still no stats on how many overall available in each sector & how competitive & what pay for age 19+. First 4 I saw at bottom of first link in last msg:

LGC Group: located in Ely, wants A-levels or equiv, pays £190/week.
RBS: located in Brum, only need GCSEs, pays £200/wk.
Nichols Cotton: located in Leicester, need 4 GCSEs, pays £148/wk
Baker Tilly: located in Leeds, need 240 UCAS points, pays £190/wk.

So those all pay less than £12k/yr. Not a bad investment in future, etc. but not touching £20k/annum either.

And then on 2nd link, I went for IT apprenticeships, but ended up with a "We do not currently hold such vacancies." message. Probably not clicking on right things.

CapGemini - have 300 IT apprenticeships on offer.

The standard lower level apprenticeships START on £12k

The higher apprenticeships is a "BSc degree sponsorship, giving you a debt free start to your IT career - our Higher ICT Apprentices study for a degree without requiring a university loan a salary building up to one that equals graduates' at the end of the 5 years"

www.uk.capgemini.com/careers/your-career-path/higher-apprenticeships

Most of these companies offer Higher Apprentice opportunities

www.cimaglobal.com/Our-locations/UK/find-out-about-joining-us/I-am-about-to-leave-school/Employers-we-work-with/

Most dont proactively advertise their starting salary (same as grad recruitment) - and with big companies you have the package to add to salary.

.....but this one does: £19k starting salary for Financial Reporting.

myjobs.cimaglobal.com/jobs/europe/apprenticeships/?utm_campaign=apprenticeship&utm_source=cima-website&utm_medium=button&utm_content=live-vacancies&utm_term=ukm

It would also be interesting to see statistics on retention rates.

I have family members who work for the big accountancy firms and I have heard from them that the drop out rate/exam failure rates are quite high. Jobs are also not always guaranteed after training is complete.

One could counter by saying that many graduate entrants don't pass their accountancy exams and are forced to leave, but at least they can go into another graduate field (e.g. teaching). What happens to those who drop out of accountancy training which they entered straight from school? (Most of the people my family members knew ended up going to university at that point.)

" it means that for the first time lawyers will be able to qualify without a university education."
Not the first time - this was the position for solicitors, barristers and most other professionals (apart from medicine) until the 1980s.

Lawyers have always been able to qualify without a university degree. However anyone who truly believes that law firms are going to take on those who've done an apprenticeship in preference to those who've been to university and then law school are living on a different planet and don't know the legal profession very well.

They might get career paralegal roles and there might be a few lucky ones who ultimately qualify as a solicitor but it certainly won't be an easy route.

Its similar to those who do a law degree at the university of Littlevillage on sea with three Bs at A Level and then expect to get a training contract.

How did we get to talking about apprenticeships when OP says that her "blue chip" ( ) company only recruits from a tiny number of UK universities, anyway?!

I'm confused by the CapGemini link, now. That looks great for DS1, BUT where does it say 300 positions available? I can only see the text that says NOTE: The only remaining roles are at locations Aston & London (Nov). For the Aston and London roles, we require at least BBB at A-level, including Maths or Physics.

So looks like the entry requiring only 7xGCSE was snapped up fast (?) for 2014.

So the CapGemini programme leads to a degree from Aston Uni (which OP would never recruit from anyway). Scuttlebutt here including info about psychometric tests and reviews here some of which say it doesn't pay enough.

87% retention rate although it reads like an advert for the company which is excellent, I should think. (But still no info about how competitive they are to get in first place).

We only recruit graduates from top 6 UK unis to our blue chip world class grad scheme -- but we also recruit higher apprenticeships - where we sponsor high potential A level candidates thru a degree while in the workplace....across 10+ careers from IT, accountancy, law, engineering etc.

We guarantee a job at the end.

Dont know if other companies guarantee a job at the end of their app scheme.

Top acc firms have run a business model for decades where they employ new grads to train and do grunt work and only have positions for half of them at the end of their training.

With only approx 4k legal training roles for approx 18k law students graduating annually in the UK -- this impacts much more than the graduates of littlevillage on sea: www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jan/21/law-students-hard-graduating.....Many end up doing para legal work after having accumulated significant debt. Q is would you be better placed to get you foot in the door earlier with an apprenticeship that face the scramble where 2/3 of grads will not get a training contract but have uni + law school debt?

www.lawcareers.net/MoreLaw/WhatIsALegalApprenticeship - 750 legal training apprenticeships by big and small firms is a credible route.

www.lawcareers.net/Information/LCNSays/Legal-apprenticeships-earn-and-learn-your-way-to-becoming-a-lawyer

To me this is the scandal - law schools and unis selling expensive courses to students where there are only jobs for 1/3 of them.