61 weeks after the start of lockdown: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England still doing well

Headline news and latest reflections

It’s been another positive week, with a good spread of new vacancies both occupationally and regionally.

The most prolific occupations were Project Management with 28 new vacancies (2 DAs and 26 HAs) and Quantity Surveying with 27 (25 DAs and 2 HAs). The most prominent locations were Watford (16), Norwich (15), Bristol (12) and Nottingham (11). 15 of the Watford vacancies were HAs in Buying & Merchandising at TJX, parent company of TK Maxx, while all 15 Norwich vacancies were Quantity Surveying DAs with the Carter construction group whose activities are based mainly in East Anglia.

I also had to weigh up whether to count 29 new Nursing Associate HA vacancies on Merseyside, but they clearly demanded at least 12 months’ experience and therefore couldn’t realistically be included on the basis of the criteria I use.

One other random but mildly interesting twist this week was the appearance of unrelated vacancies in Bath, Chard, Ilminster, Street and Yeovil in Somerset and Swindon, Calne and Devizes in Wiltshire. And continuing the recent ongoing trend, there were also a further 3 HAs for Sports Coaches yet again based in schools around Leicester.

Regarding this week’s featured image, regular readers may be surprised to know that my photographic collection includes one I took of the sun rising over Watford Junction. However, my Norwich photos are a little more striking and hence it’s my impression of willow trees overhanging the River Wensum in Norwich that gets the nod on this occasion.

Background

Since the first ‘lockdown’ started on Monday 23^rd March 2020, I’ve kept a record of all new higher and degree apprenticeship vacancies posted in England. I largely use data extracted every week from the government’s ‘Find an apprenticeship’ website, whilst also keeping an eye on other national vacancy sources. I only include vacancies that a ‘work-ready’ 18/19-year-old seeking their first permanent role could reasonably apply for, whether at the point of leaving school/college or after a few months of temporary experience.

I’ve been compiling similar data since autumn 2018, so each week I compare my post-lockdown data with the corresponding number of weeks pre-lockdown, whilst also building up occupational and regional analyses.

When recording multiple vacancies posted by some of the larger employers, I occasionally use an element of editorial licence. I usually record precise information on numbers and locations, but in a few cases I’ve made educated, conservative estimates which I adjust retrospectively if more precise data comes to light.

Therefore, the figures I present each week will never be fully reliable nor will they ever fully compare like with like. However, as the picture develops week on week, the broad trends and occupational and regional breakdowns provide some powerful LMI that I personally find immensely useful in my guidance and schools presentations.

Headline data

During the latest week, from 17^th to 21^st May, I recorded:

84 new Degree & Level 7 Apprenticeship vacancies and
137 new Higher Apprenticeship vacancies

The overall comparison pre- and post-lockdown now looks like this:

In the 61 weeks prior to lockdown (21^st January 2019 to 20^th March 2020) I recorded 5,242 new Degree & Level 7 Apprenticeships and 4,276 new Higher Apprenticeships, giving a total of 9,518 and an average of 156 new vacancies each week.

In the 61 weeks since the start of lockdown (23^rd March 2020 to 21^st May 2021) I’ve recorded 4,978 new Degree & Level 7 Apprenticeships and 4,155 new Higher Apprenticeships, giving a total of 9,133 and an average of 150 new vacancies each week.

This represents a 4.0% reduction in vacancies post-lockdown compared with pre-lockdown, which continues to show an ever-improving trend in comparison to the dire situation that prevailed during the spring and early-summer of 2020 when the reduction reached 80%.

Updated regional analysis

The 9,133 higher and degree apprenticeships advertised in England since the start of lockdown have been distributed as follows:

Greater London (2,048)
Yorkshire (858)
West Midlands (587)
Greater Manchester (493)
Bristol & Gloucestershire (393)
Hampshire (336)
Berkshire (325)
Hertfordshire (264)
Surrey (233)
Lancashire (210)
Nottinghamshire (206)
Tyne & Wear (203)
Cambridgeshire (195)
Cheshire (194)
Essex (176)
Suffolk (173)
Merseyside (172)
Sussex (156)
Cumbria (147)
Leicestershire (123)
Devon (119)
Wiltshire (118)
Oxfordshire (113)
Dorset (112)
County Durham (108)
Somerset & South Bristol (108)
Kent (107)
Northamptonshire (103)
Staffordshire (102)
Buckinghamshire (97)
Warwickshire (94)
Derbyshire (87)
Norfolk (85)
Bedfordshire (78)
Lincolnshire (56)
Worcestershire (47)
Shropshire (31)
Isle of Wight (30)
Cornwall (15)
Herefordshire (8)
Northumberland (6)
Rutland (1)
Not specified (16)

The following list shows how those stats add up regionally. In brackets I’ve included the total population of each region using the latest ONS data rounded to the nearest 1,000, which gives a sense of proportion to the apprenticeship figures. For example, in population terms the North East is by far the smallest region, so the differences in apprenticeship numbers are not as disproportionate as they might appear. As a way of quantifying this a little further, I’ve added an extra stat in bold which indexes the apprenticeship figures against the total population of each region. In effect, the index equals the number of DAs and HAs post-lockdown per 10,000 of total population.

2,048 London (8,962,000: 2.29)
1,397 South East (9,180,000: 1.52)
1,216 North West (7,341,000: 1.66)
971 East of England (6,236,000: 1.56)
869 West Midlands (5,934,000: 1.46)
865 South West (5,625,000: 1.54)
858 Yorkshire & Humber (5,503,000: 1.56)
576 East Midlands (4,836,000: 1.19)
317 North East (2,670,000: 1.19)
16 Not specified

Updated occupational analysis

Each week I update my occupational analysis by breaking down the new vacancies into what I loosely term ‘occupational areas’, which in some cases differ from the official apprenticeship standards terminology. Since the start of lockdown in March 2020, the complete lists of occupational areas represented in each category are given below. In my view, this provides a fascinating insight into what the emerging occupations are in a changing landscape.

Degree & Level 7 Apprenticeships:

In total there have been 4,978 new vacancies spread across 88 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £6,474 to £30,000pa. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

648 Accountancy/Tax/Audit Professionals

564 Digital Technology Solutions (General) *see below for details

344 Software Engineers

328 Nurses (298 Adult, 23 Mental Health, 4 Learning Disability, 3 Children)

325 Police Constables

263 Chartered Management (General)

225 Project Management

213 Civil Engineers

155 Data Scientists/Analysts

153 Chartered Quantity Surveyors

123 Product Design & Development Engineers

117 Electrical/Electronic Engineers

109 Food Technology/Production /Manufacturing

100 Chartered Building/Property Surveyors

93 Aerospace Engineers

93 Logistics/Supply Chain Leadership

75 Retail Leadership

73 Network Engineers

70 Cyber Security Professionals

62 Digital Marketing Professionals

58 Financial Services Professionals

54 Professional Economists

51 Manufacturing Engineers

49 Sales/Business Development Professionals

46 Laboratory Scientists

45 Construction Management

40 Control Engineers

36 Nuclear Engineers

35 Building Services Design Engineers

29 Manufacturing & Production Management (non-food)

29 Railway/Rail Systems Engineers

29 Solicitors

26 Operating Department Theatre Practitioners

25 Automotive Engineers

22 Digital User Experience (UX) Professionals

20 Clinical Trials Specialists

16 Environmental Practitioners

14 Creative Digital Designers

14 Materials Science Technologists

14 Packaging Professionals

12 Weapons Munitions & Explosives Engineers

10 Broadcast/Media Systems Engineers

10 Chemical Engineers

10 Clinical Physiologists (6 Cardiac, 4 Neuro)

10 Internal Audit Professionals

9 Human Resources Professionals

8 Gas Transmission Engineers

8 Propulsion Engineers

8 Town Planners

8 Transport Planners

6 Environmental Health Officers

6 Geospatial Mapping/Surveying Professionals

6 Non-Destructive Testing Engineers

6 Occupational Therapists

5 Operations Analysts

5 Recruitment Professionals

4 Biomedical Healthcare Scientists

4 Chartered Rural Surveyors

4 Diagnostic Radiographers

4 Digital Healthcare Scientists

4 Marketing Management

4 Podiatrists

3 Building Control Surveyors

3 Compliance & Risk Specialists

2 Agricultural Advisers

2 Assistant Architects

2 Assistant Teachers

2 Bioinformaticians

2 Chartered Legal Executives

2 Digital Transformation Engineers

2 Electro-Mechanical Engineers

2 Journalists

2 Medical Physics Technologists

2 Physiotherapists

2 Social Workers

2 Tax Technologists

1 Assistant Buyer

1 Audiologist

1 Building Information Modelling Specialist (BIM)

1 Charity Management

1 Human Performance Engineer

1 Learning Technologies Support Teacher

1 Marine Engineer

1 Midwife

1 Nuclear Medicine Technologist

1 Radiation Engineer (Healthcare)

1 Rehabilitation Engineer (Healthcare)

1 Visual Merchandiser

*Digital Technology Solutions (General) has encompassed or led to the following range of specialisms (list updated this week):

Software Engineer, Software Developer, Software Tester, Network Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Data Architect, Network Architect, Cyber Security Specialist, IT Support Analyst, IT Consultant, Solutions Consultant, Software Implementation Consultant, Software Consultant, Project Manager, Business Intelligence Specialist, Business Systems Engineer/Developer, Automation Developer, Technology Architect, Technology Manager, Innovation Technologist, Innovation Design Analyst, Agile Analyst, Application Support Analyst, Business Analyst, Global Mobility Analyst, Content Analyst, User Experience Researcher, Junior Product Manager, Infrastructure Specialist, DevOps Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Scientific Computing Specialist, Platform Manager, Amazon Web Services Specialist, Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition Specialist, Fixed Telecoms Specialist, IT Service Desk Analyst, Technology Operations & Service Delivery Specialist, Functional Consultant, Technical Consultant, Solution Engineering & Development Specialist, Client Delivery Specialist, Operations Resilience & Change Specialist. Some list!

Higher Apprenticeships:

In total there have been 4,155 new vacancies spread across 85 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £6,474 to £35,000pa. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

427 Software Developers

417 Trainee Accountants / Accounting Technicians

357 Project Management Associates

335 Data Analysts

310 Sales/Business Development Executives

192 Manufacturing Engineering Technicians

115 Nursing Associates

115 Policy Officers

114 Tax Technicians

103 Network Engineers

100 Investment Operations Specialists

98 Construction Technicians/Site Supervisors

95 Software Testers

85 Commercial Procurement & Supply

81 Public Relations Assistants

77 Technician Scientists

76 Cyber Security Technologists/Analysts

68 Children/Young People/Family Practitioners

64 Insurance Professionals

63 Civil Engineering Technicians

61 Business Analysts

56 Regulatory Compliance Professionals

55 Quantity Surveying Technicians

53 Electrical/Electronic Engineering Technicians

51 Building Services Engineering Technicians

47 Buying & Merchandising Specialists

39 Junior Management Consultants

37 Marketing / Digital Marketing Executives

33 Human Resources Partners

32 Food Technology/Engineering/Production

19 Actuarial Technicians

18 Nuclear Technicians

17 Automation & Control Engineers

16 DevOps Engineers

16 Media Production Co-ordinators

15 Estate Agency Negotiators

15 Financial Advisers / Paraplanners

15 Learning, Skills & Development Practitioners

15 School Sports Coaches

14 Automotive Engineering/Propulsion Technicians

14 Fibre Cable Engineers

14 Journalists

13 Mineral Products Technicians

13 Ordnance Munitions & Explosives Technicians

12 Broadcast & Media Systems Technicians

12 Housing & Property Management

11 Audiology Associates/Hearing Aid Dispensers

11 Hospitality Management

11 Quality Practitioners

10 Dairy Technologists

10 Healthcare Associate Practitioners

9 Internal Auditors

9 Operations Management

9 Retail Management

8 Brewers

8 Hygiene Specialists

8 Naval Architects

7 Adult Social Care Leaders

7 Logistics/Supply Chain Specialists

6 Improvement Practitioners

3 Digital Communities Management

2 Clinical/Medical Engineers

2 Communications Trouble Shooters

2 Conveyancing Technicians

2 Counter Fraud Investigators

2 Medical Physics Technologists

2 Paralegals

2 Phlebotomists

2 Rehabilitation Officers (Visual Impairment)

2 School Business Professionals

2 Tax Technology Technicians

1 Chemical Process Technician

1 Community Energy Specialist

1 Employability Practitioner

1 Facilities Management

1 Fitness Club Manager

1 Intelligence Analyst

1 Lighting Designer

1 Passenger Transport Management

1 Recruitment Consultant

1 Revenue & Benefits Officer

1 Sports Development Officer

1 Textiles Technician

1 Wedding Accessories Designer

1 Welfare Benefits Practitioner

Going forward

I’ve got sufficient data to keep this format going until the end of this term. Thereafter, I’ll probably look at a different approach that will enable me to continue putting some useful LMI out there in the future.