For generations, the path after A-levels seemed almost predetermined: achieve good grades, secure a university place and spend three years working towards a degree before entering the world of work.
But as thousands of students prepare to take their next step after this year’s results, that traditional route is facing an increasingly important challenge: does university still represent the best option for every young person?
The answer, increasingly, is no.
The UK’s graduate jobs market is showing just how quickly the landscape is changing. Graduate vacancies advertised across the country fell by 45.6 per cent in the year to July, to just 8,383, according to recruitment firm Adzuna. That compares with more than 55,000 graduate positions available in mid-2017.
At the same time, businesses are becoming more cautious about recruitment, while artificial intelligence is changing the nature of entry-level work. Amidst it all, one route deserves far more attention: apprenticeships.
A new route to success
Few people are better placed to make that case than Safaraz Ali MBE, a social entrepreneur, business leader, investor, author and mentor who has spent more than 25 years working across skills, employability, social care and business.
As Founder and CEO of Pathway Group and Founder and Chair of the Multicultural Apprenticeship & Skills Alliance, Ali has made apprenticeships and social mobility central to his work. He is also the founder of the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards, which celebrates apprentices, employers and learning providers from diverse backgrounds.
His own journey makes his message particularly powerful.
Ali failed all of his GCSEs before going on to build a successful career and eventually become a social entrepreneur. He believes there is a growing change in attitudes towards apprenticeships. “There is a real shift,” he says.
Young people, he argues, are increasingly questioning whether university is automatically the best investment of three years of their lives.
Research backs up that changing mindset. E.ON research involving 2,004 UK 16- to 18-year-olds found that 68 per cent believe apprenticeships build workplace skills faster than university, while 67 per cent cited student debt as an important consideration.
For British Asian families, however, changing perceptions can sometimes be particularly challenging. University remains deeply associated with achievement, security and family pride. For some parents, seeing their child secure a place at university is regarded as the natural reward for academic success.
Breaking the apprenticeship stereotype
Ali believes it is time to challenge the idea that an apprenticeship represents a lesser ambition. “Some Asian parents, and young people themselves, still view apprenticeships as a second-choice route for those who are less academic,” he says. “That view is outdated.”
The reality is very different. Degree apprenticeships can combine university-level study with a salary, workplace experience and employer-funded tuition. Apprentices can build careers in finance, technology, engineering, law, healthcare and professional services.
For families who have spent years encouraging children to achieve excellent grades, Ali has a simple message: good results should expand a young person's choices, not narrow them.
That choice should begin with a conversation about what the young person actually wants.
Rather than asking simply, “Which university will you go to?”, parents could ask: What career interests you? What skills will you need? Would you prefer classroom learning, practical experience or a combination of both? What does the employer offer? What are the progression opportunities?
Ali urges families to look beyond the label and examine the substance of an opportunity — including the employer, qualification, training provider, salary, support and prospects for progression.
Earn while you learn
There is another compelling advantage.
While a university student may spend three years studying before entering the jobs market, an apprentice can be accumulating professional experience at the same time as gaining qualifications.
Financial adviser Riz Malik has made a similar argument, pointing out that students can emerge from university with significant debt, while an apprentice may have three years of work experience, a salary and employment benefits by the time their university-going friends graduate. For students entering an uncertain jobs market, that experience can be valuable.
As thousands of young people now celebrate their results and prepare for their next chapter, the message is not that university is outdated.
It is that university is one route — not the route.
