Apprenticeships & On The Job Training
With many university degree courses losing their ability to increase earning potential, apprenticeships are seeing a massive resurgence in popularity.
Over the last 2 decades, the value and power of all but the most prestigious degrees have lost their ability to leverage salaries. Prior to this, almost any degree qualification would give you more potential to earn more across your working lifetime.
With more and more colleges becoming “universities” and in conjunction with more lower quality degree courses being offered, only top quality degrees from the top universities now provide the same benefit.
This is having a major affect on university leavers, many of which are unable to even use their degree to find employment.
Current university students are typically leaving university with debts of over £40,000 but no natural increase in earning power to be able to repay that debt.
To a certain extent, this was always going to be the case, but the extent to which degrees have been devalued has come as a massive shock for many.
Medical & engineering degrees from the top universities are the only ones which still carry the prestige of old, making a modern degree much more of a lottery then it used to be.
Apprenticeships & Traineeships
For many school leavers it is become increasingly advantageous to forgo 3 or 4 years at university in preference to earning and learning at the same time.
Not only will you not run up significant debts while gaining a qualification, but you will be earning a living, building up a working record and history and gaining valuable on the job experience.
Apprenticeships typically last 2 – 5 years, and consist of one day a week at college, working towards a highly relevant qualification which is typically an HNC or HND, and 4 days per week working for a company.
Apprentices have many advantages once they are qualified as their skills are easily transferable to other companies and indeed industries.
There are thousands of companies that provide apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities including leading provider of traineeship and apprenticeship courses, and there is more choice for school leavers than ever before.
With the percentage of NEETS currently on the rise, on the job training offers a practical alternative to returning to the classroom environment that is unsuitable for many of our less academic youngsters.
Who needs to accumulate huge debts when their degree won’t boost their earnings. It makes far more sense to get a qualification while earning money too.
Lots of people seem to be thinking the same thing…. apprenticeships are booming
Indeed, training on the job has never been more popular.
Never give up learning and adding to your qualifications and skills. All qualifications show an ability to learn and absorb information, but some are indeed more important than others.
It’s never been more important for the next generation to choose their further education options wisely. A low quality degree is increasingly becoming a worthless piece of paper.
It’s never too late to learn to swim either. Always amazes me how many people can’t.
There has been a massive resurgence in on the job, practical training in recent years, with the growth in University degrees actually benefiting traineeships and work experience positions.
It’s faster for trainees to learn everything they need to know on the job, especially the practicalities of safety in the workplace.
Speed of learning is important and there is only so much theory you can absorb in a classroom or lecture hall.
Getting real world on the job experience is missing from modern degrees, leaving graduates at a disadvantage, with a head full of theory and no way of implementing it.
University leavers are in many cases unemployable and aren’t taught the skills needed in the workplace
I feel sorry for all those university graduates that think they are leaving Uni with a valuable qualification but instead find themselves unable to find a job.
There both help each other and the main benefit is that more of our youngsters are staying in education for longer, learning more and giving themselves better earning power in later life.
Part of the governments strategy for keeping unemployment figures down is to keep youngsters in education for longer. In theory they will be improving their employment opportunities by gaining qualifications, but only if those qualifications are good quality.
There has been massive growth in college day release learning programs and many colleges are struggling to keep up with the increase in demand and more and more students shun university.
It’s only going to continue as well. Universities have managed to make a degree almost worthless while charging £40K for it!! Economic genius
As soon as it’s possible for anyone to have a qualification it downgrades that qualification……. defeating the whole point of the exercise
It’ll come full circle in the fullness of time, in a few years Universities will only attract top students taking the most prestigious degrees and all those daft degrees will be forgotten about.
There has never been a better variety of further education opportunities…. just a shame a degree now costs so much
The massive debts seem to put a lot of youngsters off university, Doing an apprenticeship is the obvious alternative.
or getting enrolled into a good traineeship scheme that has a progression strategy in place.
Becoming more and more popular as an alternative to Uni
Lower quality universities are going to start to struggle to attract students as soon as people start to realise how little their second rate degrees will earn them.
Now that universities can charge up to £17,000 a year how many fewer graduates are we going to see? A lot I suspect.
All those pointless degrees will disappear and hopefully people will start doing worthwhile degrees or an apprenticeship instead
A lot of Universities have been too greedy without offering degrees worth having.
It’s the value of the degree that needs to be determined, only Maths and the sciences seem to have any real value in todays world??
Students need to be protected from themselves and stop being offered useless degrees that are a waste of time and money.
There is an argument that as long as our young are continuing their education, progress is being made. Its the ones who still slip through the cracks and miss out that we need to reach out and help the most.
It’s my belief that apprenticeships allow those who can’t get into Uni for whatever reason, cost or qualifications to still advance and make the most of their opportunities
Everyone is different and as they say, horses for courses…. for many people, an apprenticeship is a much better option
You are right, lots of children aren’t academic and struggle to excel in the classroom, but with practical hands on skills they excel so it makes sense to let them play to their strengths.
Our daughter has just completed a customer services apprenticeship and is now full time with the company she trained with. Our son is just about to start a plumbing apprenticeship. We are huge fans and our family has benefitted hugely and our kids don’t have massive ongoing debts to worry about.
Apprenticeships help thousands of families to get on in the world
Indeed they do
It works people….. living proof
All training is beneficial, ongoing personal improvement and adding to your skill set will not only increase your earning potential, but may one day save a life.
If everyone was forced to complete first aid training at school, just think about how many lives might be saved going forwards?
Now there’s a thought
Why isn’t it compulsory?
Knowledge is power
Isn’t that the truth
Some training gives life changing skills that will either save your life or that of someone near you. Never stop learning.
Great advice for life
If only more people agreed
Education is generally wasted on the young
Never a truer word spoken
Haha… isn’t it just!
Generally?? You mean ALWAYS!!