Access and Participation in HE vis-à-vis Degree Apprenticeships

We should allow ourselves time to celebrate the success of higher level Apprenticeships. They are a brilliant UK Invention.

English apprenticeships are an educational and productivity success story. With the stretch from traditional craft and trade occupations in advanced and intermediate apprenticeships to technical, managerial, and professional job roles, via higher and degree apprenticeships, the development of new work-based progression routes are doing what they were intended to do: increasing productivity and supporting social mobility by opening up routes to the professions for under-represented and disadvantaged cohorts where apprenticeships are seen as an aspirational choice for young people and adults from all backgrounds.

Yet there are those who make a moral claim about what the purpose of apprenticeships in England today should be. Namely, that apprenticeships as defined by the Specification for Apprenticeships for England (SASE) must remain synonymous with further education (FE) delivered by colleges and independent training providers. Such highly principled, and at times amplified, views are equally wedded to the idea that apprenticeship must remain a social inclusion route solely for the young and the unqualified. Apprenticeships have seemingly become a totem for ‘purists’ of the England skills system who support and perpetuate a variety of myths and opinions on the grounds that ‘proper’ apprenticeships should be designed to specifically meet the needs of disadvantaged young people or adults furthest away from accessing jobs and labour market opportunities. Indeed, higher and degree apprenticeships have been described as ‘too expensive’, diverting funding from young people who need lower-level skills programmes, ‘re-packaged graduate schemes’ abused by employers who re-badge existing staff as apprentices, represent a ‘middle-class land grab’ and, in one report, that they are not really in the spirit of apprenticeships at all, but ‘fake’ apprenticeships.

Such striking opposition are intended to illustrate how differing descriptions of apprenticeships in England relate to their purpose and use and demonstrate how (at times dramatic) descriptions of higher and degree apprenticeships are operating within the wider higher education (HE) and skills discursive terrain. Those who vocally oppose higher and degree apprenticeships often make claims as to the ‘proper’ quality or economic value of apprenticeships.

Apprenticeship Reforms

Much of my job is to remind those operating in the ‘skills sector’ about what the expectations of the apprenticeship reforms were that introduced degree apprenticeships to the market.

Apprenticeships as envisaged through the apprenticeship reforms, became a very different programme to the programmes funded before. Under the reforms employers develop apprenticeship standards and decide where to spend on provision. Apprenticeship became focused on productivity and social mobility and the Apprenticeship Levy was not sold to employers as a tax to fund lower-level work-based learning programmes to equip young people with the skills many would argue should have been gained at school.

Degree Apprenticeships

When degree apprenticeships were launched in 2015, they brought forth what should be considered as an end to the academic and vocational divide. They were a way to tackle key skills gaps and shortages in the public sector, in nursing, policing, teaching and leadership, and in the private sector, engineering, digital, construction and management. They also signified how they were fundamental to the successful delivery of any industrial strategy, sector, regional and local skills improvement plans and offered commercial opportunity in apprenticeship provision at the level of professional skills.

From the outset, I have argued higher education (HE) needs to be a key player in the skills system if individual, employer and the skills needs of the economy are to be delivered. That HE has a track record in working with employers and professional bodies to develop programmes that develop and recognise the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to be professionally competent and through our world-class university sector makes a fundamental impact on productivity through a range of programmes and partnerships with employers.

A little more than a year ago, I welcomed Westminster government’s intention to get universities to offer more degree apprenticeships and higher technical qualifications and to help disadvantaged young people realise their potential. UVAC has produced a very detailed report outlining how support social mobility and contribute towards the government’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda. I have also been saying for some time that there is far too little focus on higher and degree apprenticeships, technical education and lifelong learning in the approach the Office for Students (OfS) has adopted, regarding Access and Participation Plans (APPs). In my view, higher level apprenticeships and higher technical qualifications with their focus on developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to be occupationally competent, totally meets the objective that HE focuses on ‘getting on rather than just getting in’.

Access and Participation 

Without a proper ‘reboot’ of the OfS’ mandated APPs to reflect the changes in HE provision and programmes in addition to reforms in level 3 qualifications, higher technical education, higher and degree apprenticeships and lifelong learning, those plans will fail to maximise the recruitment and retention of underserved and under-represented cohorts to and through HE and into graduate jobs and the professions.

In terms of widening access and participation activity, universities and HE institutions will need to consider and develop approaches to recruit and deliver provisions for those taking T levels. How will HE providers adapt or replace the approaches developed for Applied Generals and Tech Levels to reach disadvantaged learners choosing to pursue T levels or follow A levels where in the past they would have opted for Applied Generals? What approach is or will HE adopt to Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs), both in terms of gaining the quality mark for their own programmes (including exit awards), delivering programmes awarded by others and supporting top-ups to bachelor’s degree programmes? Indeed, how will HE providers use the HTQ quality mark to open up opportunities to underrepresented cohorts of learners?

Growth in Higher and Degree Apprenticeships

We would all agree. The qualification and skills landscape has changed irreversibly. Like former Minister Donelan and the present Secretary of State and her Minister for Skills, I want more higher and degree apprenticeships, more universities and HE institutions in the market to deliver and more individuals to take HTQs and progress into HE from T levels.

Higher and degree apprenticeships have grown rapidly. Apprenticeships have emerged as an aspirational programme and not the good choice of other people’s children – the description often given to apprenticeships of the past. In some occupations apprenticeships are acting as the key tool to diversity recruitment. The police constable degree apprenticeship is increasing the recruitment of women and BAME applicants to better reflect the communities they serve. Progression routes are being strengthened in many professions using apprenticeships. The nursing associate and registered nurse apprenticeship being a good example.

When exploring issues of widening participation in HE, perception and language matter. Too often we have outdated language and divisive definitions in discussion about policy. There is often a perception that the skills priority in England must be to improve levels 3, 4 and 5 ‘technical provision’. There is undoubtedly a need to increase and enhance provision at these levels in some sectors – engineering and construction are frequently mentioned. However, if not arguably, the most significant skills shortage and skills gaps in England are, respectively, nursing and management; both level 6 occupations. A focus on skills needs at levels 4 and 5 must not deflect from skills gaps and shortages at other levels. Social mobility must be about more than simply supporting individuals to undertake provision below the level of the degree.

My organisation, the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) has called for a Degree Apprenticeship growth plan that could incorporate higher and degree apprenticeships and higher technical education. This would include reiterating their multiple objectives – productivity, social mobility, levelling-up, provision of public sector services and supporting the net zero agenda – and action needed to remove the remaining barriers to growth. I am delighted that in 2023, the value of higher-level apprenticeship is now being recognised and celebrated. I also welcomed the Institute for Apprenticeship and Technical Education’s (IfATE) policy refresh of degree apprenticeships in 2022 as it provides an excellent framework to grow and ensure the long-term success of the programme. Few can now disagree that higher and degree apprenticeships are great concepts and few would argue against the HE sector demonstrating more clearly how the ‘skills’ provision it delivers, increases access and participation opportunities.

About the author

Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee has 30 years’ experience of leading and negotiating skills policy, strategic planning and performance management in economic development, vocational education and training reform. Higher and degree apprenticeships and higher technical, professional education and skills are Mandy’s fields of interest. Having worked with the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) since 2012, Mandy became its director of policy and operations in 2017 and, in October 2021, its first female chief executive. UVAC on behalf of its 70+ university members, has been championing Degree Apprenticeships since their introduction, and the value of technical and professional education for over twenty years.