DS 18 moving to London to do a degree apprenticeship from a Northern country village – advice sought re accommodation and socialising

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We have just heard that our 18 year old son has been accepted on a degree apprenticeship in London starting at the end of August. (We thought we had another 3 years watching him trundle backwards and forwards to university so this is something of an upset for us – but that’s another story.) We live in a small country village in Lancashire so this will be a massive step and culture change for him. He is not very worldly but is quite sociable and has been to London a few times. The company where he will be an apprentice only takes 2 apprentices so perhaps not a lot of scope for socialising. He doesn’t know any other young people down in London. I think he is much more likely to settle if he is able to relatively quickly find a few friends, either through his accommodation or some other activity.

I have come across LHA London which seems to operate hostel type accommodation for young people. Has anybody any experience of this operation and which are the better hostels or anything else that may be suitable for a young person to live? (He is not entitled to any university accommodation.)

Also, the university which offers the (mainly remote) degree apprenticeship is not in London. Does anyone know if he will still be able to go along to any of the London university societies/events/bars etc. (He will be on a very low wage so I thought this might help stretch his finances as well as the key aim of getting to know people.) I would say his interests are drama, politics/debating/current affairs and mountain biking (appreciate that there won’t be much scope for the last one in London!)

If anybody has any other suggestions for helping him find his feet a bit, I’d be extremely grateful. (I thought Park Run may be a useful weekend one for him.)

One of mine did a degree apprenticeship in a fairly expensive town ( not London, but still reasonably expensive).

He went in a shared accommodation, for young professionals, and had a great time. He made friends, he had a social life, and it was ok.

He got regular pay raises, so things did get easier.

Does he work for a big company? If so, they may have social events.

He may want to go airB&B until he figures himself out. That way he won't get stuck in a lease somewhere.

Well done to your son- he's on his way!!!

He won’t be able to share with students as he probably won’t be exempt for council tax.

lots of graduates start on £20k (don’t believe everything you read about grad salaries!!) and rent rooms and studios in London

Can't help on accommodation but found out recently you can get 30% off travelcards with an Apprentice Oystercard. Might help him with travel costs.

tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/apprentice-oyster-photocard

@VanCleefArpels
Luckily this young man is not yet a graduate. I think £20,000 is extremely low for a proper grad training scheme in London. Most earning low salaries live at home and are not doing grad work. Nursing or teaching (that people think is not well paid) earn way more than £20k on London. I would expect the DS to be on more than £20k as a grad. I haven’t looked at prices but DD lives in London and she has professional friends in Kennington, Islington, Horton, Walthamstow, Ealing, Shepherds Bush, Clapham, Brixton Highbury and a few others. Some earn a lot but others are constrained by earnings.

Where is his office based?
He may well be better commuting in from outer London rather than living in Central London, but where will depend on the nearest mainline terminus.

@TizerorFizz not all graduates get in grad “schemes” - in fact the vast majority do not. They get entry level jobs that are advertised as needing a degree which a few years back would have been done by bright school leavers. I speak from direct recent experience in my own family when I say £20-23k starting salaries are not uncommon for today’s graduates and I might add from good RG Uni’s with good traditional subject degrees. And that’s private sector. On that type of Salary they fully expect to pay 50% of take home pay for a room in a shared house or small studio flat in the areas you mention

@VanCleefArpels
I understand that. However grad scheme starting salaries are £30k on average. £20k is really low and quite possibly is a job as opposed to any further training being offered. I therefore agree it’s a poor outcome.

The DS of a friend has just got a job like this. However a a masters holder and good degree from a RG university he scuppered his chances of better paid work by never doing any paid work in his vacations and thinking employers would be desperate to employ him as he has a masters degree. Nearly a year after completing it, it’s a job that isn’t grad employment in any traditional sense. They just take young people with degrees who cannot get anything better! And pay peanuts. His parents will continue to pay out for him and it’s not what they envisaged but it’s better than not having a job!

I would be confident that the Ops DS won’t be in this position but no one should think the degree(s) is everything. It rarely is these days.

My point is that out of the many tens of thousands of graduates every year a tiny proportion get these “training schemes”. The absolute norm is to get “a job” - it’s not a poor outcome. It’s the normal outcome.

Firstly a huge well done to your DS! He's done brilliantly well to get onto the degree apprenticeship and it's great that he will get a qualification without loads of debt. You must be very proud of him.

I get that it's a bit daunting right now and that London is a big place. If the fact that it's a degree apprenticeship qualifies him for student accommodation I think that would be my preference for the first year while he finds his feet and meets other young people studying and working in London. Why not start from where his office is, and then see if people have suggestions for privately run student accommodation in easy commuting distance?

I believe that Degree Apprenticeship students do qualify for the student council tax exemption.

The course has to be at least 21 hours a week to qualify for student exemption so will depend on mix of work/study and how it is structured.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-a-home/student-housing/students-in-private-rented-accommodation/student-housing-council-tax/

They don't unfortunately as they're not studying full time.

@VanCleefArpels
I don’t think your figures are correct. Lots of DC continue to masters degrees. Lots of engineering grads are on training schemes to get chartered/incorporated status. Thousands of grads are recruited to the civil service, NHS and local authorise to train as professionals, eg teachers, lecturers, nurses etc. Plenty more join training schemes to be accountants, HR professionals and Computer science professionals and then there are many others who work towards marketing, merchandising, buying, building services, and loads of other jobs that require post grad training. It’s not a tiny minority at all who are classified as getting grad level entry work leading to a further qualification or getting training experience for their chosen field of work.

Here is the £18k Imperial budget Tizer or Fizz referred to:

www.imperial.ac.uk/study/ug/fees-and-funding/managing-your-money/living-costs/

It is based on needing to pay rent for the full 12 months, not just term time, so your DS should be fine on £20k.

Your DS won't be able to use the student union bar at another university on his own but he can visit any of them as a guest of a student. He should be able to join some of the university clubs and societies if he asks the club committee/befriends a member. There are quite a few students from different London universities in university clubs DS belongs to, especially from the smaller colleges that don't have a huge number of students.

He might be eligible for some of the charity/not for profit non-university affiliated student halls as a part time student. It would be a good way to meet other students. Here are some of them:

www.bbk.ac.uk/student-services/accommodation/private-halls-of-residence

He needs to find a house share (ideally student one) thatsaround £700 including bills a month max to leave enough for travel, food and socialising unless you are going to top him up. They are there for that amount- my son had one in Tooting for £680 when he first moved to London but he might not be able to be that central.

Some of the hostels are great initially, my son did this for 3 weeks till he found a house share or maybe a cheap Airbnb room in someone's house.

I would think a student house will suit him better than a prof share at his age .

I agree that a student houseshare or one of the not for profit student halls would be best, @Crikeyalmighty but the issue with living in a student houseshare is that apprentices have to pay council tax if their gross income is over £195 per week. I doubt his housemates will agree to share the cost of council tax if they are all exempt. He would need to find a student HMO where the rooms are let separately and, therefore, are individually rated for council tax or the landlord is responsible for the council tax for the building. They aren't that common in London.

Student halls that accept part time students or couples/families are rated for council tax.

Thank you all posters - I have learnt so much that I didn't know and received such good advice and have various avenues to explore. Wow! 18k recommended for a student @ Imperial - what immense pressure on London students. I think the breakdown link for this could be handy to lots of people so I'll include it here too.

The warning re council tax obligations is also really helpful, that could have completely tripped up our son.

In case it is relevant for any other welcome suggestions, he'll be working quite close to Westminster Abbey.

Tooting, Balham or Clapham are going to get him to Embankment and then it’s a quick walk. There’s good buses from most of Kennington to Westminster underground station. It’s cheaper to live a bit further out though.

@TizerorFizz my DC graduated 2019 - I am speaking from direct experience of them and their cohort. I don’t disagree with your examples of professions that offer Grad Schemes but I think you may have a skewed view of how many jobs these represent compared with the huge numbers who graduate every year - either undergrad or masters. And for what it’s worth my DC is in a profession in which there are professional qualifications available which they are studying for. But nonetheless starting salary was £20k.

@VanCleefArpels
If you have stats I’m happy for to be correct. However I’m not sure I know anyone on a proper grad recruitment scheme in London earning that little. If the average grad starting salary is £30k (and it is) there must be a hell of a lot starting on £40k. I actually doubt that. The average sits mostly between £25-35k.

Apologies for labouring the point but you continue to use the term “scheme” @TizerorFizz

These are highly selective and available to proportionately few applicants

the vast majority of graduates apply for jobs they find on Linked In or sites like Indeed. They are jobs that don’t require prior experience but do supposedly need a degree (debatable). My DC is in one of the professions you have previously mentioned within a City institution you will have heard of. Many of their friends are in eg digital marketing, PR, recruitment, retail management and local government. All in London or Birmingham. All earning around the same. There’s the odd outlier in law or banking earning near to 6 figures already.

I used to work in local government. A graduate starting salary is not £20,000. I use the word scheme because it’s shorthand for continued training for qualifications beyond the degree. The big stores such as JL snd M&S run grad recruitment training “schemes”. It’s shorthand. If everyone your DC knows hasn’t got a good job after graduation and they all earn £20,000, something has gone wrong. I know my DD1 had a few friends that started out in PR but then came to their senses and changed to well paid career jobs where they were valued for their skills. The ones who have had more challenges in getting their chosen careers off the ground studied English. Anyone who did Economics, Law, Engineering, Maths, History, Geography, MFL did not seem to have a problem. Maybe my DDs knows people who are more driven to succeed with defined career goals?

I would still be really interested in the stats that most grads from RG universities don’t get into jobs where appropriate grad training isn’t forthcoming for an identifiable career. Whether it be retail, marketing, teaching or accountancy.

Target Jobs has a very good overview on public sector starting salaries for graduates if anyone is interested. None are below £25,000 and in London there are extra payments.

@TizerorFizz we are clearly not going to agree on this. It’s sad that you use such dismissive terms about young people finding their way in a competitive and difficult marketplace, and see some careers as somehow less worthy than others.

??? I don’t see anyone as less worthy. I do think some jobs are dead ends. However attending a RG university does give a premium on earnings over other grads. IFS has reported on this and numerous reports say what the average graduate starting salary is. The silver lining of earning £20,000 is that the degree is free! The maintenance loan is free too. So maybe that’s a result?