Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote degree apprenticeships as a route to an undergraduate degree.

Degree and degree-level apprenticeships at level 6 and above offer people of all ages and from all backgrounds the chance to earn while they train and access a range of professions.

Apprenticeship starts at level 6 and above have increased from 100 in 2014/15 to 22,480 in 2018/19. 120 employer-designed standards are now approved for delivery at levels 6 and 7, in a wide range of occupations. We are continuing to raise the profile of these apprenticeships as high-quality alternatives to academic study.

To support employers to raise awareness of opportunities in their businesses, we worked with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to develop an online higher and degree apprenticeship vacancy listing. The most recent update was published in National Apprenticeship Week for starts in 2020 and includes over a thousand vacancies from employers in a range of sectors, from aeronautical engineering to town planning.

Representatives from the National Apprenticeship Service also attended 30 UCAS exhibitions in 2019, engaging with around 10,000 young people, their parents and careers advisers. This work will continue throughout 2020 alongside our wider communications and marketing activity to raise the profile of apprenticeships, including the second phase of the ‘Fire It Up’ campaign. A number of the apprentices who feature in advertising throughout the second phase are undertaking degree or degree-level apprenticeships.