UK.gov biz dept: Youth apprentice? Get a degree while you're hired

Save your parents a fortune

Blighty’s government has come up with a new plan to get kids into science, tech, engineering and maths careers – by giving ‘em a degree along with their apprenticeship.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) reckons degree apprenticeships could “revolutionise” the way the yoof get their digital skills and has introduced a raft of industry-backed qualifications for kids that want to dodge the country’s now hefty student fees.

Digital economy minister Ed Vaizey said that the new degree apprentices would be able to get a full university degree while working and earning a (probably small) wage, instead of draining the bank of Mum and Dad dry for thousands of pounds in tuition fees.

Existing workers won’t be left out either, they’ll get new industry-designed short courses to “enhance their digital skills”.

“These new digital qualifications are the latest example of government working in partnership with academia and industry to ensure that education and training routes are providing the skills which employers need now and in the future,” boasted Vaizey at the launch of the tech partnership at IBM.

“We have already put coding into the school curriculum and our rollout of superfast broadband, backed by over £1 billion government investment in our digital infrastructure, has now passed more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and is reaching 40,000 more each week.”

The degree apprenticeships will first roll out in the digital sector and will suit young people keen on careers in business analysis, software development and technology consultancy, BIS said. The degrees will be made up of academic learning and on-the-job training.

The first vacancies will start in September next year. Once an apprentice has applied to the company offering the programme, the firm will then “work with the relevant universities to select the students most able to be successful in both the degree and their career”.

The government is ponying up two thirds of the costs of training and course fees, while the company pays the apprentices’ wages and covers the last third. The courses will kick off in September.

The short courses will start with on in website development – “a proven area of need” - trialling from April next year in two locations in England. ®