Analysis of Level 10 Graduate Apprenticeships in Scotland: March 2023 update

Latest reflections in Scotland

From now on I’m aiming to publish updates early each month that give a statistical summary of degree-level apprenticeship vacancies in Scotland. This March analysis is the third report I’ve published on Scotland and it covers the nine-month period from 1/6/2022 (when I started recording vacancies) to 3/3/2023.

February turned out to be a lot busier than I expected, with 60 new vacancies added. This took my total up to 496 and I think a sample of this size is starting to provide quite a meaningful insight into the kinds of occupations that are available and how they’re distributed regionally.

I’m finding the regional spread particularly interesting, with 23 out of the 32 council areas now represented including Orkney and Shetland, although Glasgow and Edinburgh unsurprisingly still dominate. As for the occupational spread, I will let the data tell its own story. So please read on!

My reports always come with a relevant featured image, albeit sometimes with an offbeat theme. This month it’s a photo I took in Edinburgh on a cold February day, with the Fife coast in the distance.

Background

I originally started recording post-18 apprenticeships vacancies, but only in England, when the country first locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. That summer I began publishing weekly statistical updates and have been doing so consistently ever since. Then on 1^st June 2022 I also started recording vacancies in the other three home nations with a view to reporting on them too once I’d collated enough useful data.

For Scotland I keep a record of all new Graduate Apprenticeship vacancies at SCQF Level 10 (and where appropriate Level 11) that I spot during my regular searches, along with other UK-wide apprenticeships of an equivalent level that have vacancies in Scotland. In doing so I’ve started to build up an evolving occupational and regional analysis. I only include vacancies that would be open to school/college-leavers with Scottish Higher or equivalent qualifications. I largely use information from the Skills Development Scotland (apprenticeships.scot) website whilst also keeping a close lookout for relevant vacancies through my normal UK-wide channels.

I should emphasise that my data will never be fully reliable because it’s sometimes necessary to make educated and conservative estimates of vacancy numbers in the case of UK-wide employers, whereas the data I’ve collated from the excellent (in my opinion) apprenticeships.scot site should be quite accurate.

Headline data

In the 9-month period from 1^st June 2022 to 3^rd March 2023 I recorded:

496 new apprenticeship vacancies in Scotland at SCQF Level 10/11 or equivalent that would be open to students leaving school/college after completing Scottish Highers or equivalent qualifications.

Analysis by occupation

I’ve broken the new vacancies down into what I loosely define as ‘occupational areas’, which in some cases differ from official terminology. Since 1^st June 2022 the complete list of occupational areas represented is given below. In my view, this provides an interesting insight into what the emerging occupations are in a changing career landscape.

103 Accountants / Audit Specialists

71 Software Engineers/Developers

50 Tax Specialists

42 Civil Engineers

32 Business Managers

27 Construction Project/Site Managers

27 Data Scientists/Analysts

27 Design & Manufacturing Engineers

25 Quantity Surveyors

18 IT Business Managers (ITMB)

16 Digital Technology Solutions (general)

13 Cyber Security Professionals

11 Retail Leaders

10 Chartered Building/Property Surveyors

7 Electrical Power Engineers

3 Project Managers

2 Architectural Engineers

2 Food Manufacturing Managers

2 Media Systems Engineers

2 Nuclear Engineers

1 Building Services Engineer

1 Business Development (Sales/Marketing) Manager

1 Control Engineer

1 Digital User Experience (UX) Designer

1 Internal Auditor

1 Supply Chain Leader

Analysis by town/city

In terms of location, the 496 apprenticeships advertised in Scotland during this period have been distributed as follows (with council area in brackets):

213 Glasgow (City of Glasgow)
113 Edinburgh (City of Edinburgh)
47 Aberdeen (City of Aberdeen)
12 Irvine (North Ayrshire)
10 Livingston (West Lothian)
10 Perth (Perth & Kinross)
9 Inverness (Highland)
8 Motherwell (North Lanarkshire)
7 Cumbernauld (North Lanarkshire)
5 Lerwick (Shetland Islands)
5 Tweedbank (Scottish Borders)
4 Dundee (City of Dundee)
4 Glenrothes (Fife)
3 Bellshill (North Lanarkshire)
3 Bridge of Weir (Renfrewshire)
3 Rosyth (Fife)
2 Castle Douglas (Dumfries & Galloway)
2 Currie (City of Edinburgh)
2 Falkirk (Falkirk)
2 Helensburgh (Argyll & Bute)
2 Inverkeithing (Fife)
2 Newbridge (City of Edinburgh)
2 St Andrews (Fife)
2 Stirling (Stirling)
2 Turriff (Aberdeenshire)
2 Uddingston (South Lanarkshire)
1 Arbroath (Angus)
1 Ayr (South Ayrshire)
1 Beith (North Ayrshire)
1 Brechin (Angus)
1 Cambuslang (South Lanarkshire)
1 Coatbridge (North Lanarkshire)
1 Crieff (Perth & Kinross)
1 Dingwall (Highland)
1 Dounreay (Highland)
1 Dunfermline (Fife)
1 Golspie (Highland)
1 Grangemouth (Falkirk)
1 Holytown (North Lanarkshire)
1 Kirkwall (Orkney Islands)
1 Loanhead (Midlothian)
1 Lochgilphead (Argyll & Bute)
1 Montrose (Angus)
1 Paisley (Renfrewshire)
1 Wick (Highland)
1 Remote-working

Analysis by council area

This list puts the same data into a regional perspective:

213 City of Glasgow
117 City of Edinburgh
47 City of Aberdeen
20 North Lanarkshire
13 Highland
13 North Ayrshire
12 Fife
11 Perth & Kinross
10 West Lothian
5 Scottish Borders
5 Shetland Islands
4 City of Dundee
4 Renfrewshire
3 Angus
3 Argyll & Bute
3 Falkirk
3 South Lanarkshire
2 Aberdeenshire
2 Dumfries & Galloway
2 Stirling
1 Midlothian
1 Orkney Islands
1 South Ayrshire
1 Remote-working

Analysis by university partners

This is a list of universities who have partnered with employers in the delivery of the apprenticeships listed above, where this was known:

88 Strathclyde
80 Glasgow Caledonian
50 Heriot-Watt
34 Edinburgh Napier
25 Robert Gordon
19 BPP
18 Glasgow
8 Dundee
4 Highlands & Islands
4 Stirling
2 National College for Nuclear (Somerset)
2 West of Scotland
1 Coventry
1 Sheffield Hallam
1 University College of Estate Management

Analysis by minimum entry requirements

This is a simplified list of stated minimum entry requirements (where known), expressed as either Scottish Higher grades or UCAS points, and the number of apprenticeship vacancies requiring them:

197 BBBB
49 112 points
36 104 points
29 120 points
28 BBCC
19 BBBC
12 CCCC
12 96 points
9 ABBB
7 AAAB
7 BB
5 BBBBC
3 AAAB/ABBBB
3 AABB
3 BBB
3 BBC
1 128 points

Analysis by minimum starting salaries

In this table I’ve listed the aggregated minimum starting salaries for all vacancies for which this information was available. (£20,000+ denotes a minimum starting salary of between £20,000 and £20,999 and so on.)