Degree apprenticeships: a path that pays into the tech sector

With fees and debt making university life far less attractive to many young people, and businesses struggling to fill vacancies in tech jobs due to a lack of suitable candidates, degree apprenticeships could be poised to shake up higher education and finally close the gap between learning and work.

“IT is the perfect industry to break down that vocational divide, bringing together technical and academic learning,” says Ben Sweetman, director of apprenticeships at training provider QA. “The hands-on aspect of a degree apprenticeship really suits the industry.”

The Digital & Technology solutions degree apprenticeship is based on standards set by the Tech Partnership, a network of more than 1,000 employers that includes senior representatives from tech companies.

The courses are delivered by traditional universities and involve a mixture of online learning and regular workshops. What’s crucial, says Sweetman, is the involvement of business, which allows them to ensure the courses cover what’s going on out in the real world.

It’s a view that’s echoed by Anand Tailor, 20, and Dragana Ignjatic, 23 – two degree apprentices at Tata Consultancy Services, currently working at PwC.

Tailor had a place at university he decided not to take up. “I wanted hands-on experience within a professional environment and learning on the job,” he says. “Even though you can do years in industry [as part of a degree], I thought it would be better to get myself straight into the workforce.”

He agrees that degree apprenticeships are particularly suited to IT because they move with the times: “You could take a degree in IT and when you finish it will be totally outdated and new technology will have come out,” he says.

Ignjatic also wanted more practical experience, having been left frustrated by her college course. “We spent just two hours a week in the lab – there wasn’t time to learn anything,” she explains. “In IT, the most important thing is that you see how things are done and you do them yourself.”

Sweetman regularly speaks to companies that are struggling to recruit software developers and data analysts, and believes degree apprenticeships are becoming a more and more important channel to bring in new talent.

“There’s a huge numerical imbalance between the number of skilled people out in the workforce and the number of vacancies companies are struggling to fill,” he says.

Bob Clift, head of higher education programmes at the Tech Partnership, believes there are other great benefits for employers: “Degree apprentices very quickly become highly valued and contribute to the company.”

Next year will see the launch of two new degree apprenticeships, in cybersecurity and data science, that have been specifically developed to plug these gaps. A master’s programme is currently in development.

Yet while around 30,000 people completed computer science degrees last year, there are currently only around 1,000 degree apprenticeships available, covering 24 different subjects.

However, Clift warns that due to their growing popularity, there may not be enough degree apprenticeships to go around. “Companies only take on a certain number and depending on the economy, sometimes they can only take very few,” he says.