Latest reflections This week’s healthy crop of 311 new vacancies included 130 in the East Midlands, many of them with Rolls-Royce’s Defence Submarines business in Derby. Elsewhere, Shropshire was also notable for punching above its weight and as ever an intriguing range of occupations and locations featured, not least a Project Management Associate HA at … Continue reading Week 118: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship cumulative vacancies – lots to report

This is an article I originally wrote for Which? and it proved to be very popular with students and parents. A version of it subsequently appeared on the UCAS website, so they must have liked it too. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE RELATES TO THE OLD UCAS PERSONAL STATEMENT FORMAT THAT WILL BE REPLACED BY … Continue reading UCAS personal statements: writing a killer opening (2024 update)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE RELATES TO THE OLD UCAS PERSONAL STATEMENT FORMAT THAT WILL BE REPLACED BY A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FORMAT IN THE 2025-26 ACADEMIC YEAR. HOWEVER, MUCH OF THE ARTICLE'S CONTENT MAY STILL BE RELEVANT. I’ve written this article to try and help UCAS applicants who are not fixed on one specific course … Continue reading UCAS personal statements: applying for a mixture of courses (2024 update)

“This is a must-read for students applying for Uni, especially the don'ts.” (Head of Careers, University of Warwick, October 2021) PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE RELATES TO THE OLD UCAS PERSONAL STATEMENT FORMAT THAT WILL BE REPLACED BY A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FORMAT IN THE 2025-26 ACADEMIC YEAR. HOWEVER, MUCH OF THE ARTICLE'S CONTENT MAY STILL … Continue reading UCAS personal statements: 20 things to put and 20 things not to put (2024 update)

Latest reflections This was a solid if unspectacular week, but with plenty of intriguing little details. As always I was careful to sift out vacancies that don’t meet my criteria. For example, those aimed at graduates or applicants with substantial prior experience, or repeat postings of vacancies that I’ve counted previously, usually land on the … Continue reading Week 117: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship cumulative vacancies – the story continues   

Latest reflections One of the factors that sustains my interest in publishing these weekly reports is that the landscape never stops evolving. It’s been fascinating and sometimes surprising to discover what the most prolific occupations and regions are, and at the same time it’s intriguing to observe ‘new’ occupations emerging and to see occasional unexpected … Continue reading Week 116: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England – analysis of 25,000 jobs in a changing landscape   

Latest reflections Although there were only three working days in Week 115, I still recorded 135 new vacancies. And intriguingly Ipswich and Norwich contributed about 20% of them, thanks especially to Willis and Flagship Housing Group respectively. Global insurers Willis in particular have been a prominent and frequent apprenticeship provider in recent years and on … Continue reading Week 115: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England – East Anglia steals the show  

Latest reflections In the end this week’s numbers fell slightly short of taking my cumulative data over the 25,000 mark, but it was a solid and interesting week nonetheless. Amongst the more notable events and activities: Associate Project Managers overtook Accounting at the higher end of my HA listings, with over 30 new vacancies noted … Continue reading Week 114: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England – a fairly sunny outlook

Latest reflections I recorded a further 329 new vacancies this week covering more than 60 different DA and HA occupations. There’s a good chance that my overall total will reach 25,000 next week and the cumulative occupational data this has given me is providing an increasingly intriguing insight into a changing labour market. One of … Continue reading Week 113: Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England – lots of activity again

This article, written by journalist Daniel Bardsley and featuring input from myself and my colleague David Hawkins, was published in the United Arab Emirates by The National newspaper last week (12th May 2022). It was written for students in the UAE, but I think some of the content is universally relevant. I was especially pleased … Continue reading Is it better to study abroad or in your home country? How to choose a university