Headline news and latest reflections The new year has started steadily, and I think I would happily settle for that in the current circumstances. Degree apprenticeships have been slow to pick up again, but my Week 43 data was boosted by some extra numbers from vacancies posted in December that I’ve learned about through my … Continue reading 43 weeks after the start of ‘Lockdown 1’: update on the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news It was back in mid-May 2020, eight weeks after the first lockdown officially started, that I began posting this series of blogs. Today’s is the 33rd in the series. In those first eight disastrous weeks the number of new HA and DA vacancies was 77% down on the pre-lockdown figure and it continued to … Continue reading 42 weeks after the start of ‘Lockdown 1’: update on the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news Contrary to the assumption I made after Week 39, when I confidently predicted that new vacancies would surely dry up in Christmas week, to my amazement they didn’t. A further 178 new higher and degree apprenticeships were posted in Week 40, all between last Monday and Wednesday, so once again my prediction was … Continue reading 40 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: yet more positive news about the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news Yet again I’ve got a positive news story to report, with another interesting spread of new vacancies from both a regional and occupational perspective. The gap between the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown figures has closed even more, although one aspect that might be worth future analysis is the proportion of new vacancies that are … Continue reading 39 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: more good news about the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news It’s all a bit too good to be true at the moment. Despite all the doom and gloom around us, new higher and degree apprenticeship vacancies have been relatively plentiful recently, especially degree apprenticeships. What’s more, I’m already hearing that next week looks promising too, with 70 Economist vacancies to be announced on … Continue reading 38 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: further positive news about the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news Week 37 was another decent one, especially for degree apprenticeships and especially ln Suffolk. BT pitched up with 67 new vacancies, 28 of which were at their Martlesham Heath site near Ipswich, which I know well from my annual trips to speak at a school in nearby Woodbridge (hence this week’s image which … Continue reading 37 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: yet more positive news about the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

This is an article I originally wrote for the Which? University website. A version of it can currently be found on the UCAS site. Are you getting frustrated because you can’t think of a good way to open your personal statement? Or, worse still, are you struggling to write anything at all because you just … Continue reading UCAS personal statements: writing a killer opening

Headline news Once again there was plenty of activity on the higher and degree apprenticeship front last week with a good spread of new vacancies across a range of occupations and regions. They included some initial listings by BAE Systems covering multiple occupations and sites, which amongst other things was a shot in the arm … Continue reading 36 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: more positive news about the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news This was by far the best week since the country first locked down in March, especially for Degree & Level 7 Apprenticeships which were more than 500% up on the previous post-lockdown weekly average. EY, Jaguar Land Rover, Ove Arup & Partners and Mott MacDonald led the way by posting multiple vacancies in … Continue reading 35 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: very good news about the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England

Headline news It was back to reality this week after a couple of months of recovery. In fact, my gloomy prediction two weeks ago was correct after all, it just took a week longer to materialise. Nonetheless, there are still positives to report. The situation remains significantly better than it was back in the summer, … Continue reading 34 weeks after the start of ‘lockdown’: the impact of COVID-19 on Higher & Degree Apprenticeship vacancies in England