Columnist

Higher and degree apprenticeships – addressing the skills gap

by Conor Moss, Director of Education and Employer Partnerships, Sheffield Hallam University

Higher and degree apprenticeships are designed to help employers tailor the skills of fresh, emerging talent to their business needs – whilst offering young people and existing staff opportunities to pursue study at university alongside real-life work experience.

Whereas a traditional degree route sees people fund their courses through state-backed loans, apprenticeships are paid for by the employer and the government.

Currently investment is available to cover up to two-thirds of the cost of training a higher or degree apprentice (up to £18,000 per apprentice). Although from April 2017 they will be funded through an ‘apprenticeship levy’ on the UK’s top 2% largest employers.

Sheffield Hallam University has a history of delivering extensive higher and vocational programmes with employers such as JCB, Barratt Homes, Network Rail and Kier Group, but also regional SMEs too. Therefore, it’s only natural that we are amongst the vanguard of higher education providers developing this new way to address key skills gaps, helping to drive our economy forward.

With the Prime Minister himself personally pledging to create three million apprentices by 2020, it’s clear that higher and degree apprenticeships are a priority in Whitehall. But the value of these higher level apprenticeships goes much further than a political pledge. They make business sense.

In an ever more competitive and evolving market across all sectors, there is an increasing demand for bespoke higher-level skills.

Our experience at Sheffield Hallam, working with a range of businesses, shows that combining both vocational training and university study creates highly effective programmes to fill specific higher level skills gaps, with a clear line of sight to work.

This can be aimed at both young people and existing employees to develop talent already within the organisation.

From an employer’s perspective, they gain access to relevant, responsive, highly-skilled employees, with an opportunity to increase staff diversity and improve retention – all part-funded by the government.

Attracting individuals to the programmes themselves should not be a tough sell. Their fees are paid, and they receive a salary plus a degree with a guaranteed job at the end of the programme. Many degree apprenticeships also include professional accreditation.

With these potential benefits in mind, we have led on the provision of higher and degree apprenticeships. They began at Sheffield Hallam in September 2015, after we successfully bid for funding for over 240 higher apprentices from the Skills Funding Agency – the highest allocation for any university.

We already offer a range of programmes in engineering, business and management, facilities management and construction – working with the likes of Nestlé and JCB on programmes such as the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship and Higher Apprenticeship in Advanced Engineering. But this is only the beginning. We have exciting plans to offer programmes across even more sectors, including digital, IT and rail engineering, in partnership with household names such as Tata Steel and Network Rail.

Apart from cementing our position at the heart of our city region economy, this drives growth, creates jobs, delivers a skilled regional workforce and is key to initiatives such as the ‘Northern Powerhouse’.

For universities, employers and the wider economy, higher and degree apprenticeships are an opportunity not to be missed.

To find out more about higher and degree apprenticeships at Sheffield Hallam University visit our website or email apprenticeships@shu.ac.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sheffield Hallam University .