Week 125: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – steady but never dull

Latest reflections

Mid-August is always a relatively quiet period especially for DAs and my latest week’s data reflects this with a modest total of 141 new vacancies recorded in England.

There’s always something interesting to report though. For the second week running School Sports Coaches and Sales Executives were the most prominent occupations and the two of them have contributed almost 25% of all new postings in August. Next best this week were Cyber Security Technologists and there were also some Podiatrists, a Biomedical Scientist, an Audiologist, an Environmental Health Officer, a Geospatial Mapping Specialist, an Antisocial Behaviour & Community Safety Officer and two more Regulatory Compliance Officers amongst many others. However, following last week’s prediction Data Analysts sadly didn’t quite hit the 1,000 mark and they now stand at 998, but their big moment is sure to happen this week.

Once again Greater London was the busiest region and with East London generally showing quite well these days I’ve chosen one of my offbeat photos of the area as this week’s featured image. Meanwhile, my new Scottish data has continued to progress with 147 new degree-level vacancies now recorded and I’ll soon be posting an article on this to reflect on some interesting trends and patterns. Wales has started more slowly, but I’m tracking new vacancies there and in Northern Ireland too.

Background

Since the first ‘lockdown’ started on Monday 23^rd March 2020, I’ve kept a record of new higher and degree apprenticeship vacancies posted in England and in doing so have built up an evolving occupational and regional analysis. I largely use data extracted daily from the government’s ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website, whilst also keeping a close eye on other national vacancy sources, especially NHS Jobs, Not Going to Uni, Rate My Apprenticeship and Investment 20/20.

I collated similar data for a period of 70 weeks prior to the March 2020 lockdown and my weekly headline data compares the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown figures, using the two 70-week periods either side of lockdown as a benchmark.

My target audience is Level 3 school and college leavers and those who influence and advise them. Therefore, I only include vacancies at Levels 4 to 7 that ‘work-ready’ 18/19-year-olds 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. If more than a year’s permanent experience is clearly required, I don’t normally include the vacancy in my figures.

I would emphasise the term ‘work-ready’ because academic qualifications alone will never be enough to compete successfully for a higher or degree apprenticeship. Whilst a UCAS points score of around 112 is often needed for DAs (sometimes more, sometimes less), it’s otherwise much more about the skills, qualities and insights you can bring.

My data will never be fully reliable because not all vacancies are advertised nationally in a way that also gives an indication of actual numbers and locations. However, the analyses that I’ve built up paint an intriguing picture of what’s out there in a changing post-18 career landscape. The figures also suggest that there’s something of a mismatch between supply and demand in terms of volume (there aren’t enough to go around), location (my regional breakdown raises questions about ‘levelling up’) and the range of occupations available (which probably doesn’t align too well with student aspirations).

One further and slightly confusing factor to take into account is that it’s quite normal for some 18/19-year-old school/college leavers to apply for lower level apprenticeships too, especially at Level 3. It’s also true that a significant proportion of DA and HA opportunities will be snapped up by older applicants and therefore work-readiness really matters to enable 18/19-year-olds to compete.

Headline data

During the latest period from 8^th to 14^th August 2022 I recorded:

39 new Degree Apprenticeship vacancies and
102 new Higher Apprenticeship vacancies

In the 125 weeks since the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown (23^rd March 2020 to 14^th August 2022) I’ve now recorded:

14,155 new Degree Apprenticeships (Levels 6/7) and
13,443 new Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5)
giving a total of 27,598

Using the 70 weeks either side of the initial lockdown (on 23/3/20) as a benchmark, my latest comparative figures are as follows:

Weekly average in the 70 weeks before lockdown: 82 DAs + 71 HAs = 153 total
Weekly average in the 70 weeks after lockdown: 84 DAs + 75 HAs = 159 total
Weekly average in the 125 weeks since lockdown: 113 DAs + 108 HAs = 221 total

This shows that both DAs and HAs have more than fully recovered since the initial reductions in the early days of the pandemic. Whilst it’s fair to say that I’m being more thorough in the way I track down and monitor new vacancies than I was in pre-COVID days, I’m definitely seeing an upward trend in volume compared with how things looked two to three years ago. That said, with the threat of a recession looming I intend to keep my eye on the ball to see if the picture changes again.

Updated analysis by county and region

By county, the 27,598 higher and degree apprenticeships advertised in England since the start of lockdown have been distributed as follows:

Greater London (7,502)
Yorkshire (2,446)
West Midlands (1,649)
Greater Manchester (1,351)
Bristol & Gloucestershire (1,066)
Hampshire (952)
Berkshire (825)
Hertfordshire (693)
Surrey (606)
Nottinghamshire (566)
Tyne & Wear (527)
Sussex (516)
Cheshire (505)
Derbyshire (502)
Cambridgeshire (472)
Essex (460)
Lancashire (453)
Warwickshire (449)
Suffolk (424)
Merseyside (385)
Somerset & South Bristol (376)
Devon (363)
Staffordshire (354)
Wiltshire (334)
County Durham (330)
Kent (315)
Leicestershire (312)
Buckinghamshire (310)
Oxfordshire (304)
Bedfordshire (303)
Dorset (282)
Norfolk (273)
Northamptonshire (267)
Cumbria (262)
Worcestershire (196)
Lincolnshire (195)
Shropshire (137)
Cornwall (102)
Isle of Wight (43)
Northumberland (38)
Herefordshire (32)
Rutland (7)
Home working (33)
Not specified (81)

Regional data: The table below shows how those stats add up regionally in the context of the local 15-24 year-old population. The population figures have been extracted from the very latest ONS census data published in June 2022 and my data provides the following information:

First number in bold = the latest cumulative number of vacancies for each region
Big number in brackets = the resident population of 15-24-year-olds in the region using the new ONS data and rounded to the nearest 100
Third figure in bold indexes my apprenticeship figures against the 15-24-year-old population. The ‘index’ shows the combined number of DAs and HAs since March 2020 per 1,000 of that population and the regions are then ‘ranked’ accordingly:

7,502 London (1,078,600: 6.96)
2,542 South West (645,800: 3.94)
2,816 West Midlands (720,900: 3.91)
2,625 East of England (685,300: 3.83)
3,852 South East (1,040,500: 3.70)
2,461 Yorkshire & Humber (670,800: 3.67)
2,953 North West (884,600: 3.34)
1,801 East Midlands (593,700: 3.03)
932 North East (313,000: 2.98)
114 Not specified / Home working

27,598 Total England (6,633,200: 4.16)

Updated occupational analysis

Each week I update my occupational analysis by breaking down the new vacancies into what I loosely define as ‘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 Apprenticeships (Levels 6/7):

In total there have been 14,155 new vacancies spread across 103 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £5,590 to £32,000pa. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

2,948 Police Constables

1,249 Digital Technology Solutions (general) *see below for details

1,215 Accountancy/Tax/Audit Professionals

716 Chartered Managers (general)

704 Software Engineers/Developers

582 Nurses (472 Adult, 86 Mental Health, 19 Learning Disability, 5 Child)

550 Civil Engineers

461 Chartered Quantity Surveyors

415 Data Scientists/Analysts/Engineers

409 Project Managers

327 Chartered Building/Property/Land Surveyors

276 Electrical/Electronic Engineers

272 Design & Development Engineers

261 Supply Chain Leaders

222 Food Technology/Production/Manufacturing Professionals

210 Digital Marketing Professionals

199 Cyber Security Professionals

177 Manufacturing Engineers

160 Nuclear Engineers/Scientists

149 Financial Services Professionals

149 Sales Professionals

134 Building Services Design Engineers

126 Laboratory Scientists

124 Professional Economists

120 Solicitors

119 Retail Leaders

113 Aerospace Engineers

109 Environmental Practitioners

104 Construction Managers

95 Network Engineers

94 Healthcare Science Practitioners (12 Biomedical Science, 12 Cardiac Physiology, 11 Nuclear Medicine Technology, 10 Medical & Clinical Engineering, 10 Neurophysiology, 9 Respiratory Physiology & Sleep Science, 8 Radiation & Radiotherapy Engineering, 7 Radiation & Radiotherapy Physics, 5 Audiology, 5 Digital Healthcare Science, 3 Bioinformatics, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering, 1 Renal Specialist)

75 Hospital Operating Department Practitioners

75 Railway/Rail Systems Engineers

72 Digital User Experience (UX) Design Professionals

67 Control Engineers

60 Non-Destructive Testing Engineers

46 Electro-Mechanical/Mechatronics Engineers

43 Materials Scientists/Technologists/Engineers

42 Radiographers (28 Diagnostic, 14 Therapeutic)

40 Hospitality Managers

40 Internal Audit Professionals

39 Town Planners

38 Manufacturing & Production Managers (non-food)

36 Clinical Trials Specialists

36 Occupational Therapists

35 Podiatrists

34 Creative Digital Design Professionals

32 Broadcast/Media Systems Engineers

30 Recruitment Professionals

28 Building Control Surveyors

27 Business Analysts

27 Social Workers

26 Chemical Engineers

25 Packaging Professionals

24 Chartered Rural Surveyors

22 Environmental Health Officers

22 Transport Planners

21 Project Control Professionals

20 Human Resources Professionals

19 Weapons Munitions & Explosives Engineers

17 Architectural Technologists

17 Journalists

15 Architectural Assistants

15 Geotechnical Engineers

15 Junior Traders (Global Financial Markets)

15 Professional Foresters

15 Public Health Practitioners

14 GIS / Geospatial Mapping & Surveying Professionals

14 Marketing Managers

11 Insurance Professionals

11 Physiotherapists

9 Business Managers (Social Change)

8 Agricultural/Horticultural Advisers

8 Gas Transmission Engineers

8 Propulsion Engineers

6 Actuarial Professionals

6 Sport Development Officers

5 Chartered Legal Executives

5 Fire Safety Engineers

5 Operations Analysts

4 Assistant Teachers / Learning Coaches

4 Compliance & Risk Specialists

4 Speech & Language Therapists

3 Building Information Modelling (BIM) Specialists

3 Buying & Procurement Professionals

3 Digital Transformation Engineers

3 Fitness/Leisure Centre Managers

3 TV Production Managers

2 Education Technology Specialists

2 Midwives

2 Pensions Professionals

2 Tax Technologists

1 Brewer

1 Charity Manager

1 Community Centre Manager

1 Events Manager

1 Facilities Manager

1 Human Performance Engineer

1 Investment Banking Specialist

1 Lighting Designer

1 Marine Engineer

1 Population Health Intelligence Analyst

1 Prosthetist & Orthotist

*Digital Technology Solutions (general) has encompassed or led to the following range of specialisms:

Software Engineer, Software Developer, Software Tester, Network Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Global Data Analyst, Data Architect, Network Architect, Enterprise Architect, Cyber Security Specialist, IT Consultant, Solutions Consultant, Software Implementation Consultant, Software Consultant, Technical/Tech Consultant, Functional Consultant, Project Manager, Project Co-ordinator, Business Intelligence Specialist, Business Systems Engineer/Developer, Automation Developer, Automation Test Developer, Full Stack Developer, Digital Developer, Digital Solutions Architect, Technology Architect, Technology Manager, Innovation Technologist, Innovation Design Analyst, Agile Analyst, Applications Support Analyst, Technical Support Analyst, Business Analyst, Global Mobility Analyst, Content Analyst, Security Operations Analyst, Process Mining Analyst, SAP Analyst, User Experience Researcher, Junior Product Manager, Infrastructure Specialist, FinTech Specialist, DevOps Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Digital Solutions Engineer, Systems Engineer, Automation Engineer, IT Support Engineer, Service Desk Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Sales Engineer, Sales Account Manager, Sales Operations Manager, Scientific Computing Specialist, Platform Manager, Service Manager, Engineering Information Manager, Amazon Web Services Specialist, Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition Specialist, Fixed Telecoms Specialist, Support Desk Analyst, IT Support Analyst, IT Service Desk Analyst, IT Technician, Computing Technician, 2^nd Line Support Technician, WordPress Developer, Technology Operations & Service Delivery Specialist, Digital Manufacturing Engineer, Electronic Systems Design & Development Engineer, Solution Engineering & Development Specialist, Client Delivery Specialist, Client Success Specialist, Client Consultant, Operations Resilience & Change Specialist, Innovation Foundry Specialist, Continuous Improvement & Automation Specialist and Railway Signalling Control Systems Specialist.

That’s some list and it keeps growing.

Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5):

In total there have been 13,443 new vacancies spread across 132 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £5,590 to £35,000pa. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

1,300 Sales Executives

1,066 Software Developers

998 Data Analysts

980 Project Management Associates

905 Trainee Accountants / Accounting Technicians

513 School/Community Sports Coaches

388 Manufacturing Engineering Technicians

378 Construction Site Supervisors

374 Nursing Associates

367 Business Analysts

316 Network Engineers

316 Taxation Technicians

283 Software Testers

255 Quantity Surveying Technicians

245 Public Relations & Communications Assistants

235 Cyber Security Technologists

232 Retail Assistant Managers

217 Civil/Site Engineering Technicians

216 Commercial Procurement & Supply Practitioners

193 Building Services Engineering Technicians

192 Children/Youth/Family Practitioners

185 Buying & Merchandising Specialists

175 Electrical/Electronic Engineering Technicians

175 Technician Scientists

170 Policy Officers (Central/Local Government)

155 Insurance Practitioners

146 Investment Operations Specialists

135 Marketing Executives

131 Associate Ambulance Practitioners

123 DevOps Engineers

116 Regulatory Compliance Officers

108 Early Years Lead Practitioners

84 Construction Design & Build Technicians

81 Healthcare Science Associates (22 Audiology & Hearing Aid Dispensers, 15 Cardiorespiratory & Sleep Physiology, 14 Bio/Medical Engineering Technicians, 8 MRI Radiography, 6 Genetics Technology, 4 Mammography, 4 Speech Therapy, 2 Medical Physics, 2 Phlebotomy, 1 Biochemistry, 1 Neurophysiology, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering, 1 Tissue Retrieval)

80 Junior Management Consultants

77 Food Technology/Engineering/Production Technicians

77 Human Resources Specialists

77 Nuclear Technicians

73 Mineral Products Technicians

72 Quality Practitioners

70 Recruitment Resourcers/Consultants

61 Financial Advisers/Paraplanners

47 Healthcare Associate Practitioners (general/unspecified)

47 Hospitality Managers

47 Internal Audit Practitioners

45 Adult Social Care Lead Practitioners

44 Vehicle Damage Assessors

43 Actuarial Technicians

39 Brewers

39 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Practitioners

38 Intelligence Analysts

35 Automotive Engineering/Propulsion Technicians

34 TV/Media Production Co-ordinators

32 Automation & Control Engineers

32 Business Improvement Practitioners

31 Dairy Technologists

31 Learning/Skills & Development Practitioners

31 Revenue & Welfare Benefits Officers

28 Journalists

28 Railway Engineering Technicians

26 Ordnance Munitions & Explosives Technicians

23 Operations Managers

21 Estate Agency Negotiators

21 Housing/Property/Lettings Managers

15 Market Research Executives

15 Smart Energy Engineers

14 Countryside Rangers

14 Fibre Cable Engineers

14 Police Community Support Officers

12 Broadcast & Media Systems Technicians

12 Land Referencers

12 Logistics Specialists

12 Paralegals

11 Digital Community Managers

11 Hygiene Specialists

10 Football Coaches

10 Information Managers

9 Naval Architects / Marine Engineering Technicians

9 Railway/Passenger Transport Operations Managers

8 Acoustics Technicians

8 Emergency Medical Technicians

8 Film/TV Post-Production Technical Operators

7 Computer Games Developers

7 Counter Fraud Investigators

7 Employability Practitioners

6 Facilities Managers

6 Fire Safety Inspectors

6 School Business Professionals

5 Architectural Technicians

5 BEMS Control Engineers (Building Energy Management Systems)

5 Rehabilitation Officers (Visual Impairment)

5 Visual Merchandisers

4 Aircraft Certifying Technicians

4 Gymnastics/Trampoline Coaches / Rebound Therapists

4 Unified Communications Trouble Shooters

3 Antisocial Behaviour & Community Safety Officers

3 Applications Support Leads

3 Fashion & Textiles Technologists

3 Pensions Administrators

3 Port Marine Operations Officers

3 Senior Culinary Chefs

3 Space Engineering Technicians

3 Sports Development Officers

3 Utilities Technicians

2 Arboriculturists

2 Auctioneers

2 Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technicians

2 Dental Technicians

2 Early Intervention Practitioners

2 Historic Site Advisers

2 Music Recording Technicians

2 Tax Technology Technicians

2 Town Planning Assistants

2 VFX Artists

2 Water Recycling Engineers

1 Chaplain

1 Chemical Process Technician

1 Clinical Coder

1 Community Energy Specialist

1 Cultural Heritage Conservation Technician

1 Customs & Foreign Exchange Expert

1 Digital Accessibility Specialist

1 Fitness Club Manager

1 Fitness Instructor

1 Health Informatics Specialist

1 Horticultural / Landscape Design Practitioner

1 Lighting Designer

1 Metrology Technician

1 Payroll Assistant Manager

1 Tennis Coach

1 Wedding Accessories Designer

1 Wedding Venue Co-ordinator

Going forward

All being well I will continue posting frequent updates during the summer, usually on Sunday nights.

As from 1^st June I have also started to track Degree and Higher Apprenticeships in Wales and Northern Ireland and Level 6/7 apprenticeships in Scotland. I’ve always been very conscious that my blog only covers England and I intend to redress this with occasional reports starting soon.

https://alanbullockcareers.com/