The crisis in the youth employment market, with almost a million young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) across the UK, has placed fresh emphasis on ways of getting employees into the workforce.
The government hopes to increase focus on technical and vocational learning in England from the age of 14. In parallel, there is an ambition to create thousands more apprenticeships.
The work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, has also announced a new bursary aimed at ensuring families will not be left financially worse off if their teenager starts an apprenticeship.
Research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that black and mixed-ethnicity learners from poorer backgrounds and those for whom English is an additional language are less likely to complete their apprenticeships.
The Guardian asked people to share their experiences of apprenticeships.
âI am progressing faster than colleagues with degreesâ
Ellen*, 24, from Worcester, decided an apprenticeship would work better for her than university, although it was ânever suggestedâ as an option at school.
âIt was just assumed that uni was going to be the way I went,â she says. âI did my own research on my other options.â
Securing an apprenticeship was not easy, and she experienced âa lot of rejectionsâ before she won a place at a medium-sized MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) consultancy.
Her three-year apprenticeship was four days a week with a day at college for her higher national certificate (HNC) studies. Her HNC course was two years, but the apprenticeship requirement of submitting evidence added an additional year.
Ellen passed, gaining a BTec level 4 HNC as well as a CIBSE (Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers) Licentiate, and EngTech certification through CIBSE as an end-point assessment organisation and the UK regulatory body, the Engineering Council.
âIt was a huge learning curve and I had to ask for extra help from my teachers,â she says. âAt 18, being thrown into the deep end, you just want to do well, you just want to try your best to get all the answers right.
âI had a really good experience at the company that took me on as an apprentice and then gave me a job â really supportive managers â but I found it difficult to balance work, study and having a social life. All my friends chose to go to university and were all over the country, and there was no one around my age at work so having any social life was very difficult.â
Ellen says a âlack of female role modelsâ within her industry and office was also âa difficultyâ.
âI have since moved into fire sprinkler design, but starting my new career with a construction qualification and four years of industry experience has meant I am progressing faster than my colleagues who have degrees,â she says.
âI was effectively being paid to learnâ
Harry, 26, a machinist, says he feels âgratitudeâ that he has a job, as he sees friends who went to university now questioning that decision.
âSome have needed uni to get the jobs that they have now, but some of them I donât think have needed it, and theyâre starting to realise that,â he says.
Harry, from Billingshurst, West Sussex, says that, after achieving three A-levels, he briefly flirted with the idea of studying business at university.
âThe cost put me off,â he says. âAlso, it didnât sit right with me in my gut to go to university. I just didnât think I had the mental strength for full-time education while balancing a part-time job and watching my money.â
Instead, he worked two ski seasons as a chaperone in France and was planning a third when the Covid pandemic closed down tourism.
âI was lucky and privileged enough to be able to come back home to stay with my family,â he says. âThey obviously wanted me to get a job to pay rent.â
Harry knew about apprenticeships through his father, who had done an electricianâs apprenticeship in the late 1980s, and applied for âabout fiveâ. He got a four-year level 3 engineering machine technician work placement, involving a day a week of study. He started his apprenticeship in 2020, but delays due to Covid meant he finished it in 2025.
Harry threw himself into his studies. âWhile I was at college, I made sure that all the time I was there, I was doing as much work as I could because I was effectively being paid to learn,â he says.
At the end of his apprenticeship, he gained an engineering technician (machinist â advanced manufacturing engineering) level 3 qualification. The apprenticeship had a guaranteed job if he passed. Harry was offered a role, but he decided to go elsewhere for a better wage.
He adds: âI do take gratitude in the fact that I have a job. People are meant to come out of uni and find a career, but I donât think many of them can.â
âSome people were not ready to come to workâ
Hannah*, a metalworker, says while her apprenticeship was âamazingâ, she saw how others struggled and missed out on completing theirs because of a lack of support.
âThe work suited me, and I received plenty of affirmation after a long spell of unemployment and low self-confidence,â she says. âThe college qualification opened a lot of doors.
âI took maths and English functional skills tests as part of the process, having not taken any exams as a school-refusing teenager, but the course had some shortcomings when it came to material and delivery â my cohort on the course were almost universally disengaged.â
Hannah, who is in her 30s and lives in south-west England, dropped out of school aged 14, only returning sporadically. She was âin that category of Neet for quite a whileâ, turning to the apprenticeship after periods in college, cleaning part-time and picking up âlittle bits of workâ in her 20s.
While she is encouraged by the governmentâs plans regarding technical learning and apprenticeships, she sounds a note of caution. Hannah saw several people unable to continue with their apprenticeship and believes more guided support would have helped, adding that some of the cohort âstruggled with attendance and emotional regulationâ.
âI think apprenticeships can be fantastic, but they arenât the panacea for joblessness,â she says. âThereâs a lot of really good intentions to try and use the apprenticeship programme to get people who might have been a bit like me, though I was also very privileged because I had a supportive family and wasnât from a really deprived background.
âBut I saw some people on the apprenticeship, particularly the younger ones, who were just not ready to come into work. Some of them had quite complex emotional problems or difficult backgrounds as well, which makes it even harder.â
âNot having any debt is very freeingâ
Jotham, 24, from Buckinghamshire, says he regarded his three-year degree apprenticeship as the âsafest routeâ to securing a job.
âI knew before I did my A-levels that I wanted to do an apprenticeship,â he says. âMy dad had said it was a good option and I looked at the government list. University was a backup option if it hadnât worked out.â
He applied for âabout 20 to 30 apprenticeshipsâ and chose a scheme with one day a week studying at university in London that meant he could live at home and commute. It started in 2019.
âThe company I chose had two apprentices at the same time, so that was an advantage, as you had someone to do it with, and the previous apprentice was also there and would help us,â he says.
He achieved a first in his digital and technology solutions apprenticeship BSc. Although there was no guarantee of a job at the end of his course, Jotham âcarried on working at the same place and was offered a jobâ.
âItâs a very practical option, isnât it?â he says. âIt has all of the advantages of university and none of the disadvantages. Not having any debt is very freeing.â
However, he knew of some apprentices who were not so lucky: one had to stop âa year inâ because the firm collapsed.
âOthers either had to stop completely or change how they did the course because the company wasnât able to employ them for the whole three years,â he adds. âThat was a lot of bother for them, because there was no backup plan built into the course.â
Jotham is now working in database management.
âIn the job market, really whatâs wanted is experience, but people coming out of their degree may struggle to get that,â he says. âWith an apprenticeship, you get the experience. The degree is almost like a checkbox item.â
*Names have been changed
Leave a Reply