Imagine being offered a ‘golden ticket’ that pays you a salary, hands you a debt-free degree, and fast-tracks your career with a blue-chip employer. For students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, degree apprenticeships are exactly that: a transformative engine for social mobility.
Yet not enough economically disadvantaged young people are signing on the dotted line.
Some 25.7 per cent of UK students are eligible for free school meals, but they make up a measly 5 per cent of degree apprentices, according to research by the Sutton Trust, a social mobility charity. This representation index of 0.19 should be a wake-up call.
So, why the gap? In my 20 years as an educational leader, much of it as head of year 13 or sixth form, I found that for many disadvantaged young people, the application process is confusing and intimidating.
Last July, I left my teaching post to set up the Degree Apprenticeship Project. It’s a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving access to degree apprenticeships for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Some 60 per cent of students who express an interest in degree apprenticeships don’t complete a single application, according to the Universities and College Admissions Service (UCAS). If they do apply, it’s fiercely competitive too.
Less than 1 per cent of applicants are reported to have secured places at a bank a few years ago. Compare that to even the University of Oxford, where are 14 per cent of applicants secured places in 2024. For the University of Cambridge, it was around 16 per cent.
That’s not to say the odds are 100:1, though. Application and success rates will vary from company to company. Many candidates will apply for more than one degree apprenticeship. But it does gives you an idea of what students are up against.
To close this gap, we need to move beyond just telling students about these opportunities. We must help them become “degree apprenticeship-ready”. So how can we support students in navigating this complex landscape? We have to tackle the experience gap.
Many disadvantaged students don’t have the professional networks to land a week of work shadowing at, for example, an architecture firm or an investment bank. We should point them towards virtual work experience. Platforms such as Springpod offer unlimited-access simulations with world-class employers. It’s a low-barrier way to beef up a CV and demonstrate interest in a sector.
We need to teach our students about the power and importance of professional networking. Students from poorer backgrounds often lack the “insider knowledge” that more privileged peers obtain through family connections, as the same Sutton Trust research put it.
We should encourage students to treat LinkedIn as their “shop front”. They can use the platform to find current degree apprentices, and ask them for advice on the application process. These professionals possess insider knowledge that students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds can otherwise find hard to access.
We also need to help students “upskill” in their spare time. Free courses from, for example, FutureLearn and Open Learn can set a candidate apart. When a student from a non-selective state school shows up with a digital badge in cybersecurity or data analytics, for example it speaks volumes about their ability and desire to take the initiative.
The recruitment process itself usually involves a myriad of assessments. Almost all of these will be unfamiliar to students from less affluent backgrounds. They can include everything from gamified tests to AI-judged pre-recorded video interviews, from situational judgement tests to networking events. Many applicants fail to excel because they go into assessment days and interviews “cold”. Teachers and careers advisers need to better understand the hoops students need to jump through, and prepare them accordingly.
Finally, we should encourage the “degree apprenticeship champion” model. Every school has someone who oversees UCAS applications, so this is not a big ask. These champions can help students through every stage of the recruitment process, from filling out online applications to CV writing, and from networking to interview preparation.
Degree apprenticeships shouldn’t be the best-kept secret of the middle class. By providing direct, expert guidance, we can ensure our most talented students from every background get a seat at the table.
Your project sounds excellent, I am keen to get involved and will email you. I do just want to make one comment though: the contrast with UCAS makes the degree apprenticeship application process incredibly hard to manage for students. They need so much more resilience and determination than their peers who are applying to university. The application process, as you rightly say, is confusing and internecine. Frequent rejectionsover an indeterminate period with no reassuring ‘oh well there’s always Clearing’. I also know that only employers can improve this, which is frustrating.