Week 129: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – regional variations are showing up on the radar

Latest reflections

Having tracked new degree and higher apprenticeships continuously for almost four years now, I’m getting a good sense of the way they pan out across each academic year. In particular August and September always tend to be quite slow for degree apprenticeships, but then they’ll normally accelerate as we move into October.

In that context it’s therefore no surprise to me that I only recorded 23 new DAs across the whole of the United Kingdom this week, of which just eleven were in England. There were also ten in Scotland (all with Leonardo in Edinburgh) and two in North Wales, which at least has brought me a step closer to preparing my first Scotland and Wales reports in the near future.

HAs performed better and the big winners were Sales Executives (again) and also Nursing Associates. Cornwall was busy again too, with another batch of new healthcare HAs. In fact it’s becoming increasingly noticeable how the South West seems to be punching well above its weight when you look at my regional data and it’s clearly the ‘best-performing’ region outside Greater London … hence my featured image this week, a photo I took from a fast-moving train en route to the English riviera. Conversely, if my figures are anything to go by (and I would be the first to urge caution in that respect) the North East, North West and East Midlands are currently the regions in need of a little more ‘levelling up’. I intend to carry on monitoring this through the autumn to see whether or not these patterns continue.

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 including NHS Jobs, Not Going to Uni and Rate My Apprenticeship.

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 112 is the most frequently-quoted minimum entry requirement for DAs (sometimes more and quite often 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 probablydoesn’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 proportion of DA and HA opportunities will be snapped up by older applicants or even graduates and therefore work-readiness really matters to enable 18/19-year-olds to compete successfully.

Headline data

In England during the latest period from 5^th to 11^th September 2022 I recorded:

11 new Degree Apprenticeship vacancies and
113 new Higher Apprenticeship vacancies

In the 129 weeks since the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown (23^rd March 2020 to 11^th September 2022) I’ve now recorded:

14,299 new Degree Apprenticeships (Levels 6/7) and
13,926 new Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5)
giving a total of 28,225

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 129 weeks since lockdown: 111 DAs + 108 HAs = 219 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’ve definitely seen an upward trend in volume compared with how things looked two to three years ago. That said, with the threat of recession looming, I’ll be keeping my eye very firmly on the ball in the coming weeks to see if there’s any sign of a deteriorating picture.

Updated analysis by county and region

By county (loosely defined), the 28,225 higher and degree apprenticeships advertised in England since the start of lockdown have been distributed as follows:

Greater London (7,580)
Yorkshire (2,530)
West Midlands (1,673)
Greater Manchester (1,371)
Bristol & Gloucestershire (1,090)
Hampshire (962)
Berkshire (839)
Hertfordshire (703)
Surrey (616)
Nottinghamshire (576)
Tyne & Wear (530)
Sussex (525)
Cheshire (513)
Derbyshire (511)
Cambridgeshire (483)
Essex (472)
Lancashire (459)
Warwickshire (451)
Suffolk (434)
Merseyside (389)
Somerset & South Bristol (383)
Devon (373)
Staffordshire (361)
Wiltshire (335)
County Durham (331)
Buckinghamshire (319)
Kent (319)
Oxfordshire (318)
Leicestershire (317)
Bedfordshire (313)
Dorset (288)
Norfolk (278)
Northamptonshire (272)
Cornwall (270)
Cumbria (263)
Worcestershire (201)
Lincolnshire (199)
Shropshire (141)
Isle of Wight (43)
Northumberland (40)
Herefordshire (33)
Rutland (7)
Home working with no central base (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 analysis 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:

7,580 London (1,078,600: 7.03)
2,758 South West (645,800: 4.27)
2,859 West Midlands (720,900: 3.97)
2,683 East of England (685,300: 3.92)
2,546 Yorkshire & Humber (670,800: 3.80)
3,922 South East (1,040,500: 3.77)
2,992 North West (884,600: 3.38)
1,833 East Midlands (593,700: 3.09)
938 North East (313,000: 3.00)
114 Not specified / Home working

28,225 Total England (6,633,200: 4.26)

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 14,299 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:

2,988 Police Constables

1,261 Digital Technology Solutions (general) *see below for details

1,220 Accountancy/Tax/Audit Professionals

723 Software Engineers/Developers

722 Chartered Managers (general)

584 Nurses (474 Adult, 86 Mental Health, 19 Learning Disability, 5 Child)

553 Civil Engineers

472 Chartered Quantity Surveyors

415 Data Scientists/Analysts/Engineers

412 Project Managers

332 Chartered Building/Property/Land Surveyors

276 Electrical/Electronic Engineers

272 Design & Development Engineers

266 Supply Chain Leaders

222 Food Technology/Production/Manufacturing Professionals

216 Digital Marketing Professionals

200 Cyber Security Professionals

180 Manufacturing Engineers

160 Nuclear Engineers/Scientists

149 Financial Services Professionals

149 Sales Professionals

136 Building Services Design Engineers

129 Laboratory Scientists

124 Professional Economists

121 Solicitors

119 Retail Leaders

113 Aerospace Engineers

109 Environmental Practitioners

104 Construction Managers

98 Healthcare Science Practitioners (13 Biomedical Science, 13 Cardiac Physiology, 11 Nuclear Medicine Technology, 10 Medical & Clinical Engineering, 10 Neurophysiology, 10 Respiratory Physiology & Sleep Science, 8 Radiation & Radiotherapy Engineering, 7 Radiation & Radiotherapy Physics, 6 Audiology, 5 Digital Healthcare Science, 3 Bioinformatics, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering, 1 Renal Specialist)

95 Network Engineers

77 Hospital Operating Department Practitioners

75 Railway/Rail Systems Engineers

73 Digital User Experience (UX) Design Professionals

67 Control Engineers

60 Non-Destructive Testing Engineers

47 Electro-Mechanical/Mechatronics Engineers

43 Chartered Managers (Hospitality)

43 Materials Scientists/Technologists/Engineers

42 Radiographers (28 Diagnostic, 14 Therapeutic)

40 Internal Audit Professionals

39 Town Planners

38 Manufacturing & Production Managers (non-food)

37 Occupational Therapists

36 Clinical Trials Specialists

36 Creative Digital Design Professionals

35 Podiatrists

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

24 Environmental Health Officers

22 Transport Planners

21 Project Control Professionals

20 Human Resources Professionals

19 Weapons Munitions & Explosives Engineers

17 Architectural Technologists

17 Journalists

16 Public Health Practitioners

15 Architectural Assistants

15 Geotechnical Engineers

15 Junior Traders (Global Financial Markets)

15 Professional Foresters

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, Quality Assurance 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, Operations Support Analyst, Support Desk Analyst, IT Support Analyst, IT Service Desk Analyst, IT/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, Microsoft 365 Product 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 13,926 new vacancies spread across 134 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £5,590 to £35,000pa. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

1,364 Sales Executives

1,077 Software Developers

1,014 Data Analysts

986 Project Management Associates

917 Trainee Accountants / Accounting Technicians

546 School/Community Sports Coaches

403 Nursing Associates

395 Manufacturing Engineering Technicians

383 Construction Site Supervisors

373 Business Analysts

335 Network Engineers

322 Taxation Technicians

285 Software Testers

268 Quantity Surveying Technicians

250 Public Relations & Communications Assistants

241 Cyber Security Technologists

234 Retail Assistant Managers

233 Commercial Procurement & Supply Practitioners

225 Civil/Site Engineering Technicians

194 Building Services Engineering Technicians

194 Children/Youth/Family Practitioners

186 Buying & Merchandising Specialists

179 Technician Scientists

175 Electrical/Electronic Engineering Technicians

171 Policy Officers (Central/Local Government)

156 Insurance Practitioners

150 Reablement Associate Practitioners (NHS)

149 Investment Operations Specialists

138 Marketing Executives

131 Associate Ambulance Practitioners

123 DevOps Engineers

118 Regulatory Compliance Officers

113 Early Years Lead Practitioners

89 Junior Management Consultants

86 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)

77 Food Technology/Engineering/Production Technicians

77 Human Resources Specialists

77 Nuclear Technicians

74 Quality Practitioners

73 Mineral Products Technicians

70 Recruitment Resourcers/Consultants

61 Financial Advisers/Paraplanners

54 Healthcare Associate Practitioners (general/unspecified)

47 Actuarial Technicians

47 Hospitality Managers

47 Internal Audit Practitioners

46 Adult Social Care Lead Practitioners

46 Vehicle Damage Assessors

44 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Practitioners

39 Brewers

38 Intelligence Analysts

35 Automotive Engineering/Propulsion Technicians

34 Journalists

34 Revenue & Welfare Benefits Officers

34 TV/Media Production Co-ordinators

32 Automation & Control Engineers

32 Business Improvement Practitioners

32 Learning/Skills & Development Practitioners

31 Dairy Technologists

29 Railway Engineering Technicians

26 Ordnance Munitions & Explosives Technicians

24 Operations Managers

21 Estate Agency Negotiators

21 Housing/Property/Lettings Managers

18 Market Research Executives

15 Fibre Cable Engineers

15 Smart Energy Engineers

14 Countryside Rangers

14 Police Community Support Officers

12 Broadcast & Media Systems Technicians

12 Land Referencers

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 Employability Practitioners

8 Film/TV Post-Production Technical Operators

7 Computer Games Developers

7 Counter Fraud Investigators

6 Facilities Managers

6 Fire Safety Inspectors

6 School Business Professionals

5 Antisocial Behaviour & Community Safety Officers

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 Applications Support Leads

3 Dental Technicians

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 Town Planning Assistants

3 Utilities Technicians

2 Arboriculturists

2 Auctioneers

2 Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technicians

2 Early Intervention Practitioners

2 Historic Site Advisers

2 Music Recording Technicians

2 Tax Technology Technicians

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 Padel Coach

1 Payroll Assistant Manager

1 Tennis Coach

1 Travel Agent

1 Wedding Accessories Designer

1 Wedding Venue Co-ordinator

Going forward

All being well I will continue posting frequent updates, 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 as soon as I have enough data to give it some validity.

https://alanbullockcareers.com/