Latest reflections on the situation in England
Unsurprisingly 2024 opened relatively quietly, especially as it was just a four-day week. However, amongst a modest crop of new vacancies I did pick up some more HAs with the National Grid in a range of locations, plus ten new DA and HA Engineering opportunities with the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company. For the last 70 years Martin-Baker has been the world leader in the design and manufacture of ejection and crashworthy seats at its site in Higher Denham in Buckinghamshire, saving 7,716 lives in the process. I never get tired of uncovering fascinating snippets of LMI like this and linking them to guidance.
Meanwhile the week ahead already promises to be eventful, especially in the West Midlands with Jaguar Land Rover launching most of its 2024 programme later today. The Dyson Institute 2024 programme opens today as well.
I also took the opportunity to catch up with the City Century Solicitor Apprenticeship Initiative and I added some previously undetected 2024 vacancies to my records, most of them in London. Law DAs do seem to be steadily growing in number, but applicants will nonetheless need to be very motivated, driven and enthusiastic if they want to compete for places. Some of the bigger firms will be taking on small cohorts of new DAs, but others only recruit in ones or twos and I suspect that total numbers across the country will always fall a long way short of meeting potential demand.
That said, law firms in general appear to me to be very focused on diversity and fairness in their recruitment processes these days. For example, having some law work experience is less important than being able to demonstrate appropriate transferrable skills and researching the profession. Starting salaries tend to be attractive too, usually between £20,000 and £28,000 in London, or hovering around £20,000 in the provinces, whilst the degree provider is usually either ULaw or BPP and minimum entry grades are mostly AAB or ABB (or equivalent), but occasionally BBB or even CCC.
In other news, Data Analysts and Software Developers are still running neck-and-neck on 1,520 HAs each while Nottinghamshire has become the 14th county to reach 1,000 new vacancies.
As for my featured image this week, I’m afraid I’m starting the new year in a very obscure way. Referring back to the Martin-Baker vacancies, it’s the most recent photo in my collection that I took from an aircraft seat. The actual location is Bewl Bridge Reservoir on the border of Kent and East Sussex, taken on the approach to Gatwick last June. At least there’s been a steady trickle of new vacancies in both counties in recent weeks, but I will admit that it’s a very weak and tenuous link!
Latest update on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Having also tracked vacancies in the three devolved nations since 1st June 2022, my latest running totals are as follows after picking up just one new vacancy this week:
- Scotland: 883 vacancies at SQF Levels 10/11
- Wales: 229 vacancies at Levels 6/7 and 172 at Levels 4/5
- Northern Ireland: 161 vacancies at Levels 6/7 and 26 at Levels 4/5
My latest Scotland report was posted last month and I now aim to publish two-year updates for Scotland and hopefully Wales and Northern Ireland in June 2024.
Background (for any new readers)
Since 1st January 2020 I’ve kept a record of degree and higher 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 very close eye on other national vacancy sources.
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 in their final year of school/college or after gaining up to 12 months’ temporary experience.
I use the term ‘work-ready’ because academic qualifications alone are never enough to compete successfully for a higher or degree apprenticeship. A UCAS points score of 112 is the most frequently quoted minimum entry requirement for DAs (sometimes more and often less), but it’s otherwise much more about the skills, qualities and insights an applicant 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 precise numbers and locations. For that reason and others my reports always come with flaws, caveats and some editorial licence. However, I think the analyses I’ve built up paint a unique, intriguing and representative picture of what’s out there in a changing post-18 career landscape, as well as conveying a fairly realistic sense of comparative scale from both an occupational and regional perspective.
As a general observation I think it’s fair to say that there will never be enough degree apprenticeships to meet the potential demand, while there are also distinct regional variations. To a certain extent there’s probably a mismatch between students’ aspirations and the actual occupations available as well, which occasionally leads to reports of some of the less popular vacancies being hard to fill. In addition, only about 25% of overall apprenticeship vacancies are taken up by under-19s, which partly explains why my cumulative data falls well short of any official data based on apprenticeship starts. Meanwhile, a significant proportion of those Level 3 students who do take up apprenticeships will start on Level 3 programmes rather than progressing directly to Level 4 or above. The prominence of STEM occupations is also very noticeable.
One further significant observation is that NHS and other healthcare roles have become increasingly prominent in my data over time, thanks especially to the NHS Jobs website. However, these vacancies often stretch my criteria to the limit in terms of the maturity and experience they look for. Occasionally school/college leavers are actually mentioned in the person spec, but more often they’re aimed at people with at least a few months’ experience or more. However, I’ve worked with a lot of young students in the past, especially those on Level 3 courses in the health and social care field and/or those with significant work/voluntary experience or caring responsibilities, who would be capable of making a very competitive application for such roles. Hence, I do include these vacancies if I think a mature 18/19-year-old would be considered, especially within a year of leaving school or college.
Finally, there’s sometimes an element of doubt about whether to include a vacancy under Degree or Higher. My approach to this is to count a vacancy as ‘Degree’ if it starts at Level 4 and moves seamlessly on to Level 6, but as ‘Higher’ if it starts at Level 4 with an option to progress to Level 6 as opposed to an expectation.
Headline data
In England during the latest period from 1st to 7th January 2024 I recorded:
- 80 new Degree/Professional Apprenticeship vacancies (Levels 6/7) and
- 78 new Higher Apprenticeship vacancies (Levels 4/5)
- giving a total of 158 for the week
In the 209 weeks from 1st January 2020 to 7th January 2024 I’ve now recorded:
- 30,272 new Degree/Professional Apprenticeships (Levels 6/7) and
- 23,657 new Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5)
- giving a total of 53,929
The average weekly totals across all 209 weeks have been:
- 145 DAs + 113 HAs = 258 average weekly total
Updated analysis by county and region
By county (loosely defined) the 53,929 higher and degree apprenticeships advertised in England since January 2020 have been distributed as follows:
- Greater London (12,405)
- Yorkshire (4,721)
- West Midlands (3,433)
- Greater Manchester (3,067)
- Bristol & Gloucestershire (2,641)
- Hampshire (1,866)
- Berkshire (1,847)
- Hertfordshire (1,276)
- Surrey (1,268)
- Cheshire (1,160)
- Tyne & Wear (1,107)
- Cambridgeshire (1,038)
- Cumbria (1,032)
- Nottinghamshire (1,000)
- Derbyshire (985)
- Sussex (973)
- Merseyside (911)
- Lancashire (896)
- Essex (854)
- Suffolk (815)
- Devon (809)
- Buckinghamshire (749)
- Somerset & South Bristol (717)
- Dorset (692)
- Kent (686)
- Warwickshire (680)
- Leicestershire (659)
- Oxfordshire (620)
- Staffordshire (614)
- Wiltshire (602)
- Bedfordshire (596)
- County Durham (499)
- Northamptonshire (432)
- Norfolk (401)
- Cornwall (401)
- Worcestershire (382)
- Lincolnshire (362)
- Shropshire (321)
- Isle of Wight (73)
- Northumberland (72)
- Herefordshire (57)
- Rutland (15)
- Remote-working with no central base (75)
- Not specified (120)
Regional data: The table below shows how those stats add up regionally in the context of the local 15 to 24-year-old population. The population figures have been extracted from the 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 to 24-year-olds in the region using the latest ONS data rounded to the nearest 100
- Third figure in bold indexes my apprenticeship figures against the 15 to 24-year-old population. The ‘index’ shows the combined number of DAs and HAs since January 2020 per 1,000 of that population and the regions are then ‘ranked’ accordingly:
- 12,405 London (1,078,600: 11.50)
- 5,862 South West (645,800: 9.08)
- 7,066 North West (884,600: 7.99)
- 8,082 South East (1,040,500: 7.77)
- 5,487 West Midlands (720,900: 7.61)
- 4,980 East of England (685,300: 7.27)
- 4,736 Yorkshire & The Humber (670,800: 7.06)
- 3,357 East Midlands (593,700: 5.65)
- 1,759 North East (313,000: 5.62)
- 75 Remote-working
- 120 Not specified
- 53,929 Total England (6,633,200: 8.13)
Whilst my data is always going to have flaws in it, I think the above comparisons give a fair reflection of the regional differences that exist. The South West’s prominence is perhaps surprising, with Bristol being a particularly busy hub.
Updated occupational analysis
Every week I update my occupational analysis, breaking the vacancies down into what I loosely define as ‘occupational areas’. In some cases these differ from the official apprenticeship standards terminology. For each occupational area the total number of vacancies since January 2020 is given below for both degree and higher apprenticeships.
Degree/Professional Apprenticeships (Levels 6/7):
In total there have been 30,272 new vacancies spread across 111 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £5,590 to £36,775pa, with the average being somewhere in the middle at around £19K to £20K. The occupational breakdown is as follows:
5,185 Accountancy/Tax/Audit Professionals
4,496 Police Constables
3,051 Digital Technology Solutions: General *see below for details
1,331 Chartered Managers: General Business
1,222 Software Engineers/Developers
1,211 Civil Engineers
1,020 Integrated Project Managers
900 Chartered Quantity Surveyors
859 Data Scientists/Analysts/Engineers
762 Nurses (593 Adult, 124 Mental Health, 37 Learning Disability, 8 Child)
635 Nuclear Engineers/Scientists
579 Electrical & Electronic Engineers
518 Design & Development Engineers
446 Manufacturing Engineers
418 Supply Chain Leaders
408 Banking/Financial Services/Investment Professionals
381 Aerospace Engineers
380 Chartered Surveyors: Project Management
379 Solicitors
364 Building Services Engineers
357 Cyber Security Professionals
339 Professional Economists
317 Digital Marketing Professionals
278 Sales Professionals (Business to Business)
270 Laboratory Scientists
244 Chartered Managers: Retail Leadership
221 Food & Drink Technologists
215 Environmental Practitioners
205 Healthcare Science Practitioners (43 Biomedical Sciences, 27 Cardiac Physiology, 24 Nuclear Medicine, 23 Radiation Physics, 18 Respiratory & Sleep Physiology, 17 Radiation Engineering, 13 Audiology, 13 Medical Engineering, 12 Neurophysiology, 5 Digital Healthcare Science, 5 Medical Physics, 3 Clinical Informatics, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering, 1 Renal Technology)
183 Chartered Building Surveyors
177 Construction Managers
175 Electro-Mechanical Engineers
170 Railway & Rail Systems Engineers
158 Chartered Managers: Food/Drink Manufacturing & Production
155 Project Controls Professionals
136 Operating Department Practitioners (NHS)
118 Radiographers (62 Diagnostic, 56 Therapeutic)
116 Automation & Control Engineers
97 Digital User Experience (UX) Designers
97 Occupational Therapists
94 Materials Science Technologists/Engineers
76 Chartered Managers: Hotel & Hospitality Management
76 Non-Destructive Testing Engineers
72 Podiatrists
71 Chartered Managers: Recruitment Professionals
69 Creative Digital Designers
68 Building Control Surveyors
68 Social Workers
67 Chemical Engineers
63 Design & Construction Managers/ Architectural Technologists / BIM Specialists
62 Town Planners
58 Packaging Professionals
55 Clinical Trials Specialists
53 Broadcast/Communication/Media Systems Engineers
49 Chartered Rural Surveyors (Land Agents)
44 Human Resources & People Professionals
42 Chartered Managers: Manufacturing/Production (non-food)
41 Environmental Health Officers
39 Transport Planners
35 Weapons Munitions & Explosives Engineers
34 Chartered Managers: Social Change, Charities & Voluntary Sector
33 Chartered Geospatial/Land Surveyors
31 Journalists
30 Marketing & Brand Managers
30 Public Health Practitioners
29 Architectural Assistants
28 Physiotherapists
24 Aerospace Software Engineers
24 Geotechnical Engineers
23 Fire Safety Engineers
18 Insurance Professionals
15 Forestry Professionals
13 Environmental Engineers
13 Midwives
13 Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners
12 Dietitians
11 Chartered Managers: Sports Business
9 Propulsion Engineers
8 Agricultural/Horticultural Advisers
8 Gas Transmission Engineers
7 Land Buyers
7 Speech & Language Therapists
6 Actuarial Professionals
6 Chartered Legal Executives
6 Sport Development Officers
5 Chartered Managers: Fitness & Leisure Centres
5 Operations Analysts
5 Trading Standards Officers
4 Assistant Teachers / Learning Coaches
4 Chartered Managers: Buying & Procurement
3 Assistant Archivists
3 Digital Transformation Engineers
3 Education Technology Specialists
3 Orthotists/Prosthetists
3 TV Production Managers
2 Licensed Conveyancers
2 Lighting Designers
2 Pensions Professionals
2 Sonographers
2 Youth Workers
1 AI Data Specialist
1 Community Centre Manager
1 Community Safety Officer
1 Events Manager
1 Facilities Manager
1 Games Programmer
1 Health & Safety Practitioner
1 Human Performance Engineer
1 Population Health Intelligence Analyst
1 Robotics Engineer
1 Service Designer
*DAs in Digital Technology Solutions (DTS) open up a wide range of roles. Some vacancies specify the role, while others are flexible. The three most frequently specified roles have been Software Engineer/Developer, Data Analyst and Cyber Security Specialist and I’ve recorded these as three separate occupations in my DA listings above (Data Analysts being merged in with Data Scientists and Data Engineers for the purposes of my reports). Meanwhile, those DAs listed as Digital Technology Solutions (general) are either flexible or they lead to other specific roles. The following is a list of all the DTS roles I’ve recorded since 2020 and it now encompasses 108 different job titles:
Software Engineer, Software Developer, Software Tester, Cyber Security Specialist, Data Analyst, IT Consultant, Network Engineer, Data Scientist, Global Data Analyst, Data Product Specialist, Data Architect, Network Architect, Enterprise Architect, Digital Solutions Architect, Technology Architect, Solutions Consultant, Software Consultant, Software Implementation Consultant, Technical Consultant, Technology Consultant, Functional Consultant, Business Consultant, Dynamics Consultant, Security Consultant, Application Management Consultant, Project Manager, Project Co-ordinator, Digital Project Delivery Support, Application Developer, Business Intelligence (BI) Developer, Business Systems Developer, Automation Developer, Automation Test Developer, Full Stack Developer, Digital Developer, Prototype Developer, Technology Manager, Legal Technologist, Innovation Technologist, Innovation Design Analyst, Agile Analyst, Application Analyst, Applications Support Analyst, Technical Support Analyst, Operations Support Analyst, Support Desk Analyst, IT Support Analyst, IT Service Desk Analyst, Business Analyst, Business Technology Analyst, Network Strategy Analyst, Global Mobility Analyst, Content Analyst, Security Operations Analyst, Process Mining Analyst, SAP Analyst, User Experience Researcher, Digital Social Media Executive, Junior Product Manager, Infrastructure Specialist, FinTech Specialist, DevOps / NetOps Specialist, DevOps Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Digital Solutions Engineer, Hardware Engineer, Systems Engineer, Business Systems Engineer, Automation Engineer, IT Support Engineer, Technical Support Engineer, Service Desk Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, Sales Engineer, Sales Account Manager, Sales Operations Manager, Sales Data Analyst, AI Technical Sales Adviser, Scientific Computing Specialist, Platform Manager, Service Manager, Engineering Information Manager, Information Management Technology Specialist, Control Systems Specialist, Rail Signal Control Systems Specialist, Amazon Web Services Specialist, Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition Specialist, Fixed Telecoms Specialist, IT/Computing Technician, Second Line Support Technician, WordPress Developer, Public Health Intelligence Officer, Technology Operations & Service Delivery Specialist, Associate Digital Delivery Manager, Digital Manufacturing Engineer, Electronic Systems Design & Development Engineer, Solution Engineering & Development Specialist, Client Delivery Specialist, Client Success Specialist, Client Consultant, Microsoft Dynamics & Power Applications Consultant, Microsoft 365 Product Specialist, IT Governance & Applications Support Specialist, Operations Resilience & Change Specialist, Innovation Foundry Specialist, and Continuous Improvement & Automation Specialist.
Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5):
In total there have been 23,657 new vacancies spread across 149 occupational areas and minimum starting salaries have ranged from £5,002 to an unbelievably astronomical £48,369pa. However, the average is around £17K to £18K, except for Sports Coaches which are usually around £10K or lower. The occupational breakdown is as follows:
1,963 Sales Executives
1,573 Accounting Technicians
1,520 Data Analysts
1,520 Software Developers
1,441 Project Management Associates
1,136 Sports Coaches (Children & Young People)
799 Nursing Associates (Adult/Elderly/Mental Health/Learning Disability)
702 Construction Site Supervisors
682 Manufacturing Engineering Technicians
620 Quantity Surveying Technicians
582 Network Engineers
573 Taxation Technicians
569 Business Analysts
458 Cyber Security Technologists
450 Commercial Procurement & Supply Practitioners
418 Software Testers
411 Public Relations & Communications Assistants
397 Civil/Site Engineering Technicians
350 Electrical & Electronic Technician Engineers
328 Social Care Practitioners (Adults/Children/Families/Young People)
322 Investment Operations Specialists
321 Buying & Merchandising Assistants
316 Building Services Engineering Technicians
316 Insurance Practitioners
269 Junior Management Consultants
260 Technician Scientists
259 Healthcare Assistant Practitioners (150 Reablement, 69 Multidisciplinary, 12 Diagnostic Imaging, 6 Mammography, 6 Podiatry, 5 Speech Therapy, 3 Continuing Healthcare, 3 Intensive Care, 2 Dietetic Speech & Language, 1 Maternity Support Worker, 1 Occupational Therapy, 1 Stroke Rehabilitation)
259 Retail Managers
243 DevOps Engineers
235 Marketing Executives
229 Construction Design & Build Technicians
200 Policy Practitioners
195 Police Community Support Officers
194 Early Years Lead Practitioners
191 Regulatory Compliance Officers
183 Associate Ambulance Practitioners
154 Mineral Products Technicians
149 Healthcare Science Associates/Technicians (60 Audiology & Hearing Aid Dispensers, 31 Medical Engineering, 19 Cardiac & Respiratory Physiology, 14 Genetics, 12 Respiratory & Sleep Physiology, 4 Tissue Retrieval, 2 Medical Physics, 2 Phlebotomy, 1 Biochemistry, 1 Biomedicine, 1 Neurophysiology, 1 Nuclear Medicine, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering)
142 Human Resources Specialists
141 Railway Engineering Technicians
133 Quality Assurance Practitioners
125 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Practitioners
125 Food Technology/Manufacturing Technicians
123 Nuclear Technicians
113 Hospitality Managers
95 Automotive Engineering/Propulsion Technicians
90 Internal Audit Practitioners
84 Actuarial Technicians
83 Journalists
80 Intelligence Analysts
73 Recruitment Consultants
72 Brewers
72 Vehicle Damage Assessors
65 Financial Paraplanners
64 Automation & Controls Engineering Technicians
59 Applications Support Leads
59 Business Operations Managers
57 Audiovisual Technicians
57 Revenues & Welfare Benefits Officers
53 Learning & Skills Practitioners/Mentors
49 Market Research Executives
47 Business Improvement Practitioners
44 Dairy Technologists
43 Information Managers
43 TV/Media Production Co-ordinators
36 Housing/Property/Lettings Managers
34 BEMS Controls Engineers (Building Energy Management Systems)
31 Ordnance Munitions & Explosives Technicians
30 Air Traffic Controllers
30 Engineering Maintenance Technicians
29 Paralegals
27 Estate Agency Negotiators
25 Engineer Surveyors
23 Countryside Rangers
21 Land Referencers
20 Acoustics Technicians
18 Digital Community Managers
17 Digital Accessibility Specialists
15 Fibre Cable Engineers
15 Smart Energy Engineers
12 Broadcast & Media Systems Technicians
12 Facilities Managers
11 Film/TV Post-Production Technical Operators
11 Football Coaches
11 Gymnastics Coaches
11 Hygiene Specialists
10 Employability Practitioners
9 Counter Fraud Investigators
9 Data Protection Officers
9 Naval Architects / Marine Engineering Technicians
9 Railway/Passenger Transport Operations Managers
8 Antisocial Behaviour & Community Safety Officers
8 School Business Professionals
8 Town Planning Technicians
7 Computer Games Developers
7 Dental Technicians
7 Digital Product Managers
7 Fire Safety Inspectors
7 Historic Environment Advice Assistants
7 Port Marine Operations Officers
7 Rehabilitation Officers (Visual Impairment)
6 Music Teachers
5 Architectural Technicians
5 Asset Managers
5 Broadcasting Technical Operators
5 Early Intervention Practitioners
5 Unified Communications Troubleshooters
5 Visual Merchandisers
4 Aircraft Certifying Technicians
4 Padel Coaches
4 Space Engineering Technicians
4 Tax Technology Technicians
3 Arboriculturists
3 Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technicians
3 Culinary Chefs
3 Fashion & Textiles Technologists
3 Junior Animators
3 Music Recording Technicians
3 Outdoor Learning Specialists
3 Payroll Associates
3 Pensions Administrators
3 Sports Development Officers
3 Utilities Technicians
3 Visual Effects Artists
2 Auctioneers
2 Chaplains
2 Cricket Coaches
2 Digital Learning Designers
2 Energy Specialists
2 Trampoline Coaches & Rebound Therapists
2 Travel Executives
2 Water Recycling Engineers
1 Chemical Process Technician
1 Conveyancing Technician
1 Cultural Heritage Conservation Technician
1 Customs & Foreign Exchange Expert
1 Fitness Club Manager
1 Fitness Instructor
1 Governance Officer
1 Health Informatics Specialist
1 Horticultural / Landscape Design Practitioner
1 Hotel Reception Manager
1 Lighting Designer
1 Metrology Technician
1 Process Leader
1 Proposals Co-ordinator
1 Tennis Coach
1 Wedding Accessories Designer
1 Wedding Venue Co-ordinator
Going forward
All being well I’ll continue posting weekly or fortnightly updates, usually on Sunday nights or Monday mornings.
© Alan Bullock Careers, 8/1/2024
Alan Bullock Careers 