Week 219: Degree & Higher Apprenticeships overview – a very good week for HAs

Latest reflections on the situation in England

When I started this project in 2020 I didn’t expect it to still be going strong more than four years later, but I’ve managed to sustain it continuously and also to make gradual improvements to the process along the way. I find the ever-evolving data story irresistible.

This week I’ve made three more tweaks to the process, firstly by removing or re-defining a couple of DA occupations that I no longer felt were appropriate, secondly by swapping the order of the occupational and regional analyses in my weekly narrative, and thirdly by subdividing my long list of Digital Technology roles into loosely-defined groups based on job titles.

Otherwise, the main highlights this week were very much in the HA rather than DA category. The Royal Air Force posted a substantial volume of Air Traffic Controller HAs, there was a big haul of Social Care Practitioner vacancies working in children’s homes across the West and East Midlands, another batch of Associate Ambulance Practitioner vacancies was posted by an agency based in Hampshire, Kent and Essex, and there were also half a dozen Journalist HAs with the Telegraph Media Group in London. Schneider Electric were busy again too, with more vacancies at locations stretching from Gateshead to Chippenham.

In addition there were three new Environmental Practitioner DAs in Hull, Manchester and London and one new Environmental Health Officer DA in Bristol. As some readers will know, I’ve published a data report on this topic which I now update on a frequent basis. Here’s a link to it for anyone who’s interested in seeing how the Environmental landscape currently looks, with the latest vacancies added:

Environmental Practitioner degree apprenticeships 2024 update: who, what and where?

There was a good scattering of new vacancies elsewhere too, with Kent in particular punching above its weight and earning its choice as the location of this week’s featured image. I love a nice Kentish oast house and this is one I saw peeking through the trees in the village of Lamberhurst. Meanwhile, Shropshire was also prominent in an indirect kind of way, because the primary training location for the Air Traffic Control apprentices is at RAF Shawbury. I lived and worked in that area for a couple of years myself in the 1970s and used to play five-a-side football at Shawbury, where I still remember the time we got thrashed by a girls’ team from Market Drayton.

Headline data (England)

Since 1^st January 2020 I’ve been continuously tracking new vacancies that would be suitable for Level 3 school/college leavers to apply for during their final year of full-time education or within a year of leaving. During the latest one-week period from 11^th to 17^th March 2024 I recorded:

63 new Degree/Professional Apprenticeship vacancies (Levels 6/7) and
284 new Higher Apprenticeship vacancies (Levels 4/5)
giving a total of 347 for the week

In the 219 weeks from 1^st January 2020 to 17^th March 2024 I’ve now recorded:

32,698 new Degree/Professional Apprenticeships (Levels 6/7) and
25,393 new Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5)
giving a total of 58,091

The average weekly totals across all 219 weeks have been:

149 DAs + 116 HAs = 265 average weekly total

Latest update on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Having also tracked new vacancies in the three other devolved nations since 1^st June 2022, my latest running totals are as follows:

Scotland: 1,029 vacancies at SQF Levels 10/11
Wales: 245 vacancies at Levels 6/7 and 191 at Levels 4/5
Northern Ireland: 172 vacancies at Levels 6/7 and 26 at Levels 4/5

My latest quarterly Scotland report was published earlier this month and I now aim to update my Scotland data on a monthly basis. All being well I will also publish Wales and Northern Ireland updates in June.

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 32,698 new vacancies spread across 113 occupational areas and starting salaries have ranged from £5,590 to £36,822pa, with the average being somewhere in the middle at around £19K to £20K. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

5,494 Accountancy/Tax/Audit Professionals

4,696 Police Constables

3,282 Digital Technology Solutions: General *see below for details

1,399 Civil Engineers

1,387 Chartered Managers: General Business

1,322 Software Engineers/Developers

1,071 Project Managers: General

1,009 Chartered Quantity Surveyors

926 Data Scientists/Analysts/Engineers

801 Nurses (618 Adult, 130 Mental Health, 42 Learning Disability, 11 Child)

661 Nuclear Engineers

644 Electrical & Electronic Engineers

591 Design & Development Engineers

554 Manufacturing Engineers

481 Supply Chain Professionals

443 Banking/Financial Services/Investment Professionals

434 Chartered Surveyors: Project Management / General Practice

421 Solicitors

419 Building Services Engineers

400 Aerospace Engineers

375 Cyber Security Professionals

347 Professional Economists

323 Digital Marketing Professionals

299 Laboratory Scientists

298 Sales Professionals

268 Chartered Managers: Retail Leadership

255 Environmental Practitioners

236 Healthcare Science Practitioners (61 Biomedical Sciences, 30 Cardiac Physiology, 24 Nuclear Medicine, 24 Radiation Physics, 19 Respiratory & Sleep Physiology, 17 Clinical/Medical Engineering, 17 Radiation Engineering, 15 Audiology, 13 Neurophysiology, 5 Digital Healthcare Science, 5 Medical Physics, 3 Clinical Informatics, 1 Diagnostic Radiology, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering, 1 Renal Technology)

223 Food & Drink Technologists

207 Electromechanical/Mechatronics Engineers

202 Chartered Building Surveyors

194 Railway & Rail Systems Engineers

184 Construction Managers

163 Chartered Managers: Food/Drink Manufacturing & Production

161 Control Technical Support Engineers

160 Project Controls Professionals

142 Operating Department Practitioners (NHS)

118 Radiographers (62 Diagnostic, 56 Therapeutic)

117 Occupational Therapists

101 Materials Science Technologists/Engineers

100 Digital User Experience (UX) Designers

84 Design & Construction Managers / Architectural Technologists

82 Chemical Engineers

81 Social Workers

80 Non-Destructive Testing Engineers

79 Podiatrists

76 Chartered Managers: Hotels & Hospitality

72 Creative Digital Designers

72 Town Planners

71 Chartered Managers: Recruitment Professionals

68 Building Control Surveyors

58 Packaging Professionals

56 Clinical Trials Specialists

53 Broadcast/Communication/Media Systems Engineers

52 Chartered Rural Surveyors (Land Agents)

48 Marine/Submarine Engineers

44 Environmental Health Officers

44 Human Resources & People Professionals

42 Chartered Managers: Manufacturing/Production (non-food)

40 Transport Planners

37 Social Researchers

36 Chartered Geospatial/Land Surveyors

36 Chartered Managers: Marketing

35 Weapons Munitions & Explosives Engineers

34 Chartered Managers: Social Change, Charities & Voluntary Sector

33 Physiotherapists

31 Journalists

30 Public Health Practitioners

29 Architectural Assistants

29 Fire Safety Engineers

24 Aerospace Software Engineers

21 Insurance Professionals

18 Speech & Language Therapists

15 Forestry Professionals

13 Environmental Engineers

13 Midwives

12 Dietitians

12 Theme Park Engineers

11 Chartered Managers: Sports Business

9 Agricultural/Horticultural Advisers

9 Propulsion Engineers

8 Gas Transmission Engineers

7 Chartered Managers: Buying & Procurement

7 Land Buyers

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: Theme Parks

3 Assistant Archivists

3 Digital Transformation Engineers

3 Education Technology Specialists

3 Orthotists/Prosthetists

3 Risk & Safety Management Practitioners

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 Events Manager

1 Facilities Manager

1 Games Programmer

1 Human Performance Engineer

1 Resilience & Emergencies Professional

1 Robotics Engineer

1 Service Designer

1 Space Systems Engineer

*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 116 different job titles, which this week for the first time I’ve subdivided into groups. My rationale for the different groupings is a bit tenuous, but I think it makes the list more digestible:

Software Engineer, Software Developer, Software Tester
Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Global Data Analyst, Data Product Specialist, Sales Data Analyst, Data Engineer, Data Architect
Network Architect, Enterprise Architect, Digital Solutions Architect, Technology Architect
IT Consultant, Solutions Consultant, Software Consultant, Software Implementation Consultant, Technical Consultant, Technology Consultant, Functional Consultant, Business Consultant, Dynamics Consultant, Security Consultant, Client Consultant, Application Management Consultant, Microsoft Dynamics & Power Applications Consultant, AI Technical Sales Adviser
Network Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Digital Solutions Engineer, Digital Engineer, Digital & Technology Engineer, Digital Manufacturing Engineer, Hardware Engineer, Systems Engineer, Business Systems Engineer, Automation Engineer, IT Engineer, IT Support Engineer, Technical Support Engineer, Service Desk Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Sales Engineer, Electronic Systems Design & Development Engineer
Digital Developer, Application Developer, Business Systems Developer, Business Intelligence (BI) Developer, Automation Developer, Automation Test Developer, Full Stack Developer, Prototype Developer, WordPress Developer
Innovation Technologist, Legal Technologist, Credit Trading Technologist, People (HR) Solutions Technologist
Business Analyst, Business Technology Analyst, Cyber Security Analyst, 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, Network Strategy Analyst, Global Mobility Analyst, Content Analyst, Security Operations Analyst, Process Mining Analyst, SAP Analyst
Technology Manager, Junior Product Manager, Sales Account Manager, Sales Operations Manager, Platform Manager, Service Manager, Engineering Information Manager, Associate Digital Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Project Co-ordinator, IT Support & Helpdesk Administrator
Infrastructure Specialist, FinTech Specialist, DevOps/NetOps Specialist, Client Success Specialist, Digital Project Delivery Support Specialist, Information Management & Technology Specialist, Control Systems Specialist, Rail Signal Control Systems Specialist, Amazon Web Services Specialist, Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition Specialist, Fixed Telecoms Specialist, Scientific Computing Specialist, Technology Operations & Service Delivery Specialist, Solution Engineering & Development Specialist, Client Delivery Specialist, Microsoft 365 Product Specialist, IT Governance & Applications Support Specialist, Operations Resilience & Change Specialist, Innovation Foundry Specialist, Continuous Improvement & Automation Specialist
IT/Computing Technician, Second Line Support Technician
User Experience Researcher, Content Strategist, Digital Social Media Executive, Public Health Intelligence Officer

Higher Apprenticeships (Levels 4/5):

In total there have been 25,393 new vacancies spread across 153 occupational areas and starting salaries have ranged from £5,002 to £38,469pa. The average is around £17K to £18K, except for Sports Coaches which are usually around £10K or lower. The occupational breakdown is as follows:

2,070 Sales Executives

1,665 Accounting Technicians

1,601 Data Analysts

1,566 Software Developers

1,561 Project Management Associates

1,186 Sports Coaches (Children & Young People)

891 Nursing Associates

763 Construction Site Supervisors

706 Manufacturing Engineering Technicians

662 Quantity Surveying Technicians

602 Business Analysts

602 Network Engineers

598 Taxation Technicians

490 Cyber Security Technologists

473 Commercial Procurement & Supply Practitioners

434 Social Care Practitioners (Adults/Children/Families/Young People)

434 Software Testers

429 Electrical & Electronic Technician Engineers

420 Public Relations & Communications Assistants

417 Civil/Site Engineering Technicians

355 Investment Operations Specialists

348 Building Services Engineering Technicians

326 Insurance Practitioners

325 Buying & Merchandising Assistants

311 Junior Management Consultants

265 Retail Managers

265 Technician Scientists

259 Healthcare Associate 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)

256 DevOps Engineers

250 Marketing Executives

238 Construction Design & Build Technicians

232 Associate Ambulance Practitioners

211 Early Years Lead Practitioners

200 Policy Practitioners

196 Regulatory Compliance Officers

195 Police Community Support Officers

170 Mineral Products Technicians

167 Healthcare Science Associates/Technicians (61 Audiology & Hearing Aid Dispensers, 42 Medical Engineering, 20 Cardiac & Respiratory Physiology, 15 Genetics Technology, 13 Respiratory & Sleep Physiology, 4 Clinical Chemistry, 4 Tissue Retrieval, 2 Medical Physics, 2 Phlebotomy, 1 Biomedicine, 1 Neurophysiology, 1 Nuclear Medicine, 1 Rehabilitation Engineering)

159 Railway Engineering Technicians

153 People Professionals / HR Specialists

147 Food Production Process Leaders & Technology Technicians

140 Quality Practitioners/Engineers

134 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Practitioners

127 Nuclear Technicians

117 Air Traffic Controllers

117 Automotive Engineering/Propulsion Technicians

116 Hospitality Managers

93 Internal Audit Practitioners

91 Actuarial Technicians

90 Intelligence Analysts

89 Journalists

86 Vehicle Damage Assessors

75 Financial Advisers/Paraplanners

75 Recruitment Consultants

72 Brewers

69 Applications Support Leads

69 Audiovisual Technicians

65 Automation & Controls Engineering Technicians

64 Business Operations Managers

57 Revenues & Welfare Benefits Officers

54 Dairy Technologists

54 Market Research Executives

53 Information Managers

53 Learning & Skills Practitioners/Mentors

49 Business Improvement Practitioners

43 TV/Media Production Co-ordinators

42 Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) Engineers

41 Ordnance Munitions & Explosives Technicians

37 Housing/Property/Lettings Managers

36 Paralegals

31 Aircraft Engineering Technicians

31 Engineering Maintenance Technicians

27 Estate Agency Negotiators

25 Engineer Surveyors

23 Countryside Rangers

22 Land Referencers

20 Acoustics Technicians

19 Digital Accessibility Specialists

18 Digital Community Managers

15 Facilities Managers

15 Fibre Cable Engineers

15 Smart Energy Engineers

12 Broadcast & Media Systems Technicians

12 Hygiene Specialists

11 Data Protection Officers

11 Film/TV Post-Production Technical Operators

11 Football Coaches

11 Gymnastics Coaches

10 Aviation Operations Managers

10 Employability Practitioners

9 Antisocial Behaviour & Community Safety Officers

9 Counter Fraud Investigators

9 Historic Environment Advice Assistants

9 Marine Engineering Technicians

9 Railway/Passenger Transport Operations Managers

9 Rehabilitation Officers (Visual Impairment)

9 Town Planning Technicians

8 Dental Technicians

8 School Business Professionals

7 Asset Managers

7 Computer Games Developers

7 Digital Product Managers

7 Fire Safety Inspectors

7 Port Marine Operations Officers

6 Music Teachers

5 Architectural Technicians

5 Broadcasting Technical Operators

5 Digital Learning Designers

5 Early Intervention Practitioners

5 Outdoor Learning Specialists

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 Culinary Chefs

3 Fashion & Textiles Technologists

3 Governance Officers

3 Junior Animators

3 Music Recording Technicians

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 Energy Specialists

2 Lifting Equipment Operations Engineers

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 Goalkeeping Coach

1 Health Informatics Specialist

1 Horticultural / Landscape Design Practitioner

1 Hotel Reception Manager

1 Lighting Designer

1 Metrology Technician

1 Proposals Co-ordinator

1 Small Vessel Chief Engineer

1 Tennis Coach

1 Wedding Accessories Designer

1 Wedding Venue Co-ordinator

1 Youth Justice Practitioner

Updated analysis by county and region

By county (loosely defined) the 58,091 higher and degree apprenticeships advertised in England since January 2020 have been distributed as follows:

Greater London (13,040)
Yorkshire (5,199)
West Midlands (3,758)
Greater Manchester (3,229)
Bristol & Gloucestershire (2,843)
Hampshire (2,028)
Berkshire (1,931)
Hertfordshire (1,326)
Surrey (1,324)
Cheshire (1,269)
Tyne & Wear (1,211)
Cambridgeshire (1,128)
Nottinghamshire (1,091)
Cumbria (1,087)
Derbyshire (1,086)
Sussex (1,037)
Merseyside (993)
Lancashire (939)
Essex (915)
Warwickshire (887)
Devon (887)
Suffolk (845)
Buckinghamshire (804)
Somerset & South Bristol (761)
Kent (753)
Dorset (734)
Wiltshire (696)
Leicestershire (694)
Oxfordshire (682)
Bedfordshire (654)
Staffordshire (642)
County Durham (550)
Northamptonshire (467)
Cornwall (417)
Lincolnshire (418)
Norfolk (410)
Shropshire (409)
Worcestershire (389)
Northumberland (89)
Isle of Wight (82)
Herefordshire (58)
Rutland (18)
Remote-working or flexible location (90)
County not specified (221)

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 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:

13,040 London (1,078,600: 12.09)
6,347 South West (645,800: 9.83)
6,191 West Midlands (720,900: 8.59)
7,517 North West (884,600: 8.50)
8,641 South East (1,040,500: 8.30)
5,213 Yorkshire & The Humber (670,800: 7.77)
5,276 East of England (685,300: 7.70)
3,705 East Midlands (593,700: 6.24)
1,931 North East (313,000: 6.17)
90 Remote or flexible
140 Region not specified

58,091 Total England (6,633,200: 8.76)

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.

Going forward

All being well I’ll continue posting weekly or fortnightly updates, usually on Sunday nights or Monday mornings.

Footnote: How the data has been collected

Since 1^st 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 very close tabs 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 twelve 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 in my listings 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 wonderful 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 NHS vacancies are 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 or 7, but as ‘Higher’ if it starts at Level 4 with an option to progress to Level 6 as opposed to an expectation.

Although my data is not stored electronically, I do have a written record of all 58,091 vacancies with details of the employer, occupation, location(s), minimum starting salary (if known) and, in the case of DAs, minimum entry grades and degree provider. As a guidance practitioner myself it’s been an incredibly illuminating and informative process, transforming my own perceptions about the labour market.