Thinking about your skills gaps?...Think about degree apprenticeships!

The foundations for the continued growth and success of any business is its people. Recruiting and developing the right people with the right skills ensures continued stability and opportunities for growth and success/increased competitiveness in the future. 

Degree apprenticeships are a proven, popular and successful way of meeting skills gaps, helping to drive recruitment of high-calibre staff and upskilling and developing existing employees. Degree apprenticeships provide an opportunity to combine a career with a recognised and credited training programme. Whilst employed with you, a degree apprentice will study with the University of Chichester, one day a week, towards a qualification aligned to the needs of your business. This enables theory to be put into practice, embeds learning, and creates opportunities within the workplace for new thinking, new ideas and new ways of working.  

The apprentice does not pay any tuition fees. If a business pays the Apprenticeship Levy, the apprentice’s tuition fees are paid from its digital account. If a business does not pay the Apprenticeship Levy, the tuition fees will be jointly funded by the employer and the Government. In many cases, the Government meets 95% of the costs of the programme.

Skills shortages are clearly evident in a range of sectors and degree apprenticeships offer a proven way of helping to tackle this issue, as well bringing additional benefits to the business such as:

• Skills. Degree apprenticeships help employers find and develop the right talent and skills. Many employers have reported difficulties finding the right recruits at graduate level. Hiring a degree apprentice gives you the opportunity to train a future graduate to suit your particular needs, and create a pipeline for talent within your organisation. Nationally, 86% of employers said apprenticeships helped them develop skills relevant to their organisation 
  
  
• Productivity. Feedback from employers suggests that where they have hired apprentices, it has improved their productivity and the quality of their service. Nationally, 78% of employers said apprenticeships helped them improve productivity 
  
  
• Staff satisfaction. Employers who have hired apprentices also report greater staff satisfaction and increased morale. Nationally, 74% of employers said apprenticeships helped them improve the quality of their product or service  

The University of Chichester delivers degree apprenticeships that are designed specifically to the needs of employers. Our programmes are delivered on a day-release basis, with apprentices attending sessions on campus one day per week. Our innovative Postgraduate Senior Leader Apprentice programme is offered on a one day per month basis.  

The university’s apprenticeships team can support employers with recruitment and selection of suitable apprentices. The team is happy to be as involved as needed by an employer.

What have employers and degree apprentices said?

Eurotherm (Watlow Group) - Lacey Evans, R&D Degree Apprentice said: ‘Some of the benefits of combining working and studying for a degree at the University of Chichester, include applying the knowledge and skills you learn at university in a working environment, which provides industry experience and consolidates what you have learnt. Another benefit includes receiving the essential workplace experience often required for graduate jobs, before graduating! 

I have used the knowledge gained at university to help contribute to many projects at Eurotherm – the things I have learnt at university provide the fundamental background knowledge required to be applied within real-life engineering applications at work.’ 

Red River - Simon Pringle, CEO of Red River said: “Adam’s working on real projects for customers and doing a great job. He’ll be with us for four years as he works towards his degree and is already a firm member of the team”. 

“We have worked closely with the university over the past years and been proud to do our bit to get the Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship up and running. I’m looking forward to getting involved again as the degree apprenticeships have been a game changer for us and the eight software engineers we have put through this programme have turned out to be the engine room of our business. For those employers out there who are unaware of the benefits please do get in touch and visit https://www.chi.ac.uk/degree-apprenticeships/”

If you would like to find out more about our programmes or need an informal chat to talk through options please contact us on apprenticeships@chi.ac.uk or our business development managers, Andrew Adams (a.adams@chi.ac.uk) and Dr Andy Slade (a.slade@chi.ac.uk)

Alternatively, you can view information on all of our programmes online at: www.chi.ac.uk/apprenticeships