A new study today reveals a 12% uplift in engineering sector degree apprenticeships at the UK\u2019s Top 100 universities in the last two years, despite government funding cuts earlier this year leaving thousands of employers facing an estimated \u00a3214 million* increase in training costs.<\/p>\n
The research by the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC), the higher and degree apprenticeship voice for over 80 universities, comes just months after levy funding was withdrawn for most Level 7 apprentices aged over 21, leaving engineering employers with a financial and skills shortage headache.<\/p>\n
In a further boost to firms, 69% of the UK\u2019s Top 100* universities will continue to offer Level 7 apprenticeships in September despite the funding shortfall.<\/p>\n
In the engineering sector, 75% of the degree apprenticeships available at leading universities this autumn will be available at Level 6, whilst 25% can be completed at Level 7.<\/p>\n
There has been a 6% increase in top universities providing degree apprenticeships in the last two years, reflecting sustained employer and apprentice demand for both Level 6 and 7. Degree apprenticeship provision overall across sectors*** ranging from construction to law has also increased by 73% over the same period.<\/p>\n
Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee, chief executive of UVAC, said: \u201cAlthough these findings provide no comfort to both the thousands of engineering employers or apprentices aged 22 and older who were greatly impacted by the Level 7 government funding cuts earlier this year, it\u2019s clear from our research that the UK\u2019s top universities continue to back degree apprenticeships in large numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s particularly encouraging is that universities aren\u2019t simply maintaining provision, they\u2019re evolving it. Degree apprenticeship growth in sector areas such as engineering and manufacturing demonstrates their commitment to helping tackle where the UK\u2019s biggest workforce challenges exist, and where higher-level skills can have the greatest economic impact.<\/p>\n
In addition to engineering, marketing has seen a 150% growth in degree apprenticeship programmes provided by the UK\u2019s top universities since 2024, followed by construction, architecture and the built environment (+95%) and law (+67%). The following list identifies which sectors have seen the most growth in degree apprenticeships over the last two years:<\/p>\n
1. Marketing: +150%<\/p>\n
2. Construction and architecture: +95%<\/p>\n
3. Law: +67%<\/p>\n
4. Finance and accounting: +57%<\/p>\n
5. Health and science: +54%<\/p>\n
6. Care services: +35%<\/p>\n
7. Digital and IT: +31%<\/p>\n
8. Catering and hospitality: +25%<\/p>\n
9. Creative and design: +17%<\/p>\n
10. Engineering: +12%<\/p>\n
11. Protective services: +11%<\/p>\n
12. Education, teaching and childcare: +0%<\/p>\n
13. Business administration: -6%<\/p>\n
14. Transport and logistics: -20%<\/p>\n
15. Agriculture, environmental and animal care: -71%<\/p>\n
Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee added: \u201cDemand for engineering-led degree apprenticeships amongst young people has never been higher. Our focus is now on helping universities ensure their provision across more regions, sectors and apprentices from underserved communities so that social mobility is not compromised.<\/p>\n
\u201cDegree apprenticeships remain the cornerstone to a successful economy and our latest findings are certainly a significant step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new study today reveals a 12% uplift in engineering sector degree apprenticeships at the UK\u2019s Top 100 universities in the last two years, despite government funding cuts earlier this year leaving thousands of employers facing an estimated \u00a3214 million* increase in training costs. The research by the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC), the higher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/startupstockphotos-student-849826-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25147,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25145\/revisions\/25147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}