In an article recently published in the Sunday Telegraph of London, it is reported that in the United Kingdom, a growing number of middle-class teenagers that finish school are opting for apprenticeships over traditional university education. One of the reasons identified for this is the high level of student debt.
Many firms are in fact proposing programmes with the aim to ensure that young people who arrive at the workplace are equipped with the right skills. These firms work with universities on degree apprenticeships which allow them to tailor degrees for particular business needs such as technology. Degree apprenticeships which allow recruits to study without paying tuition are proposed by firms such as PwC, Rolls-Royce and Dyson. They are highly popular, with some of them receiving more applications per place than Oxford or Cambridge.
According to the newspaper, the proportion of firm stuff on apprenticeship schemes rather than in graduate roles was likely to grow. As a representative of PwC put it “”Everyone who has gone to University at the moment, has gone to university in a previous world, pre-cost of living crisis”