Background

These are my latest reflections on the impact COVID-19 has had on new higher and degree apprenticeship vacancies. It’s an update to the blogs I posted on 19^th May, 26^th May and 1^st June, with minor tweaks to the way I record and present the information.

Headlines

During the week of 1^st to 5^th June I recorded 45 new Degree Apprenticeship vacancies and 32 new Higher Apprenticeship vacancies that were advertised nationally in England, generally using the government ‘Find an apprenticeship’ website. Comparatively speaking, this means that the number of new vacancies has been slashed by a huge margin of 77% over the past 11 weeks compared with the 11 weeks prior to lockdown. However, on a positive note, the downward curve has flattened out this week (the margin had been 80% after 10 weeks, 78% after 9 weeks and 77% after 8 weeks) and my hope is that it might be the start of a slow recovery.

In my degree apprenticeships ‘league table’, a clear top ten has now emerged. In fact, together I think the two league tables provide useful insights into the kinds of professional jobs that are becoming prominent and in demand. A good example of this is seeing UX Professionals moving up in the degree apprenticeship league.  I haven’t yet met a young person who said they would like to be one. 

I’m more than aware that some higher and degree apprenticeships never reach the government website, so the data I present gives a sketch of what’s happening rather than providing a fully reliable set of data. A specific example of this arose just over a week ago when Durham Constabulary’s latest Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship recruitment was opened. Unlike some other police forces in the last couple of years, it wasn’t advertised nationally. Also, most successful applicants will already live within its boundaries. However, my understanding is that the number of vacancies is significant to the extent that, had I been able to include it in my data, Police Constables would have leapt straight to the top of the degree apprenticeship league table by a large margin, well ahead of the otherwise dominant Digital Technology Solutions. This shows that there is more activity taking place than my stats can fully take account of. There’s a little more commentary on this below, along with a glimpse of further developments coming up next week in relation to Nursing Associates.

Overall findings

In the 11 weeks immediately prior to ‘lockdown’ (6^th January to 20^th March) I recorded:

• 1,090 new degree apprenticeships and 860 new higher apprenticeships giving a total of 1,950 and an average of 177 new vacancies each week.

In the 11 weeks since the start of lockdown (23^rd March to 5^th June) I have recorded:

• 251 new degree apprenticeships and 197 new higher apprenticeships giving a total of 448 and an average of 41 new vacancies each week.    

Updated ‘league tables’

I have also updated my league tables in which I record the number of new vacancies in England broken down by what I loosely term ‘occupational areas’, which I find more useful in guidance than strictly adhering to the names of different apprenticeship standards.

Since the ‘lockdown’ date of 23/3/20, the occupational areas represented in each category are now as follows (starting with the highest):

Degree apprenticeships:

In total there have been 251 new vacancies spread across 25 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries still range from £8,092 to £25,065pa.   

1^st Digital Technology Solutions* (current total = 58)

2^nd Accountancy & Taxation

3^rd Financial Services

4^th Electrical/Electronic Engineers

5^th Chartered Management

6^th Control Engineers

7^th Data Scientists & Analysts

8^th Civil Engineers

9^th Broadcast & Media Systems Engineers

10^th Chemical Engineers

11^th= Building Services Design Engineers

11^th= Food Technologists

11^th= Quantity Surveyors

14^th= Building, Property & Valuation Surveyors

14^th= Mechanical, Product Design & Development Engineers

14^th= Packaging Technologists

14^th= User Experience (UX) Professionals

18^th= Materials Scientists

18^th= Supply Chain Leadership

20^th= Business to Business Sales Executive

20^th= Cyber Security Technologist

20^th= Environmental Practitioner

20^th= Environmental Health Practitioner

20^th= Laboratory Scientist

20^th= Marketing Management

*Digital Technology Solutions has included a range of specific roles such as Software Engineering, Network Engineering, Data Analytics, Cyber Security, Infrastructure Engineering and BIM (Building Information Modelling).

Police Constables might also figure prominently in future. In my longer-term ‘league tables’ covering the period from October 2018 to June 2020, Police Constables (with over 1,200 vacancies) comes second only to Digital Technology Solutions (with over 1,400) in the degree apprenticeship league. 

Higher apprenticeships:

In total there have been 197 new vacancies spread across 27 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries still range from £6,474 to £29,000pa.

1^st Software Developers (current total = 36)

2^nd Manufacturing Engineering Technicians

3^rd Project Management

4^th= Data Analysts

4^th= Science Laboratory Technicians

6^th Broadcast & Media Systems Technicians

7^th Electrical/Electronic Engineering Technicians

8^th Investment Consultants

9^th Accountancy & Taxation

10^th Network Engineers

11^th= Information Systems Business Analysts

11^th= Sales Executives

11^th= Software Testers

14^th Buying, Procurement & Supply Chain

15^th= Cyber Security Officers

15^th= Policy Officers

17^th= HR/Learning & Development/Employability Practitioners

17^th= Insurance Professionals

17^th= Operations Management

17^th= Paraplanners

17^th= Public Relations 

22^nd= Children, Young People & Family Practitioner

22^nd= IT Support Professional  

22^nd= Learning & Skills Teacher

22^nd= Quantity Surveying Technician

22^nd= Regulatory Compliance Officer

22^nd= Revenue & Benefits Officer

Looking ahead to next week, Nursing Associates is likely to make a conspicuous entry straight into the top ten in the higher apprenticeship league, as this morning 11 vacancies in the Mental Health field have just been advertised across Lancashire and Cumbria.

Going forward

I will continue to observe how it pans out this week and will post further updates whenever I have time and when there are interesting developments to report. Given this morning’s significant entry into the charts by Nursing Associates, I think I will struggle to resist the temptation to post another update next Monday.

© Alan Bullock, 8/6/2020