Since 2008 I've written two books and more than fifty articles on the topic of UCAS personal statements. More recently I adapted three of the most popular articles and republished them on my blog as a free resource. After many years without any significant changes, UCAS has been undertaking a consultation process with a view … Continue reading My UCAS personal statement articles

Latest reflections Just a brief update this week, as late-August is always relatively quiet. I recorded 145 new vacancies in England, following which all the data below has been amended accordingly, plus a small amount of activity in Scotland and Wales to add to a future report I’m working on for the other home countries. … Continue reading Week 127: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – latest update

Latest reflections As I said last week, Mid-August usually tends to be very quiet especially for DAs. Sure enough, even though I’m now tracking new vacancies across all four home countries, by Wednesday night I’d recorded just 10 new Level 6/7 apprenticeships and barely 30 at Level 4/5 in the whole of the United Kingdom. … Continue reading Week 126: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – a week of intrigue!

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

Latest reflections New vacancies in England were steady last week, with HAs in particular being fairly buoyant while DAs always tend to be a bit quieter in August. It wasn’t a very good week for ‘levelling up’ though, with about 60% of newly-posted vacancies being in London and the South East despite those regions comprising … Continue reading Week 124: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – quite a busy week for the time of year

Latest reflections Just a brief commentary this week, but there’s been plenty of activity on the DA and HA front as well as the belated addition of a crop of DA Accountancy/Audit vacancies that I missed earlier in the year. It was an especially busy week in Yorkshire, including a bulk posting of Police Constable … Continue reading Week 123 Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – lots of activity especially in West Yorkshire

Latest reflections Thanks to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and a little more number-crunching on my part, the regional breakdowns that I provide have been further improved, adjusted and updated this week. Consequently, this part of my cumulative data is now more accurate and comprehensive than anything I’ve previously produced. The North East and … Continue reading Week 122 Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – with more new regional data

Latest reflections The normal pattern for July continued this week with a steady but not prolific spread of new vacancies across England. However, perhaps the most notable development is that I've crunched some more numbers following publication of the first batch of data from the 2021 national census. This has enabled me to update and … Continue reading Week 121: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – with new enhanced regional data

Latest reflections As is the norm for July this was a steady rather than prolific week, but it gives me an opportunity to report on two broader developments. The first is that I’ve been noticing a gradual rise in vacancies that mention hybrid or home working. In a lot of these cases the employer is … Continue reading Week 120: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship overview – hybrid and home-working are here to stay

Latest reflections Somerset was most notable for punching above its weight this week, especially because of a block of Nursing (both Adult and Mental Health) and Nursing Associate vacancies centred around Taunton. As is often the case in Nursing, these vacancies were not specifically aimed at school and college-leavers, but could be appropriate for applicants … Continue reading Week 119: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship cumulative vacancies – there’s more to Tax than you think