A degree apprenticeship is an opportunity to find and develop skills that your workforce needs. You design a programme that trains apprentices to have the right expertise and build talent within your organisation.
Apprentices make your product and service better and they help you to deliver it more effectively. They'll bring up-to-date skills from their programme into your workplace and use their new expertise to work through your organisation's challenges as part of their curriculum.
Results show an increase in staff satisfaction at organisations with a degree apprenticeship programme. You'll recruit from a group of talented potential apprentices and retain your best employees through ongoing workforce development.
We deliver workforce development programmes and provide public sector higher education focused on practice-based learning for policing, nursing and teaching.
Our expert practitioners work in partnership with public sector employers to enhance how their team works together and how they provide exceptional services to their clients.
We're leading the way in defining best practice in the development and delivery of public sector apprenticeships to help organisations and education providers train the qualified, skilled workers needed to deliver essential public services.
Read the report - our 'Best Practices in work-integrated learning for degree apprenticeships' report is based on insight from our national project to develop and launch apprenticeships for police officers, nurses, teachers and social workers working with public sector partners.
Catch up on the conference - we hosted a national conference with workshops, speakers and panel sessions to explore the topic in depth.
The Sustainable Degree Apprenticeships report is part of a research project generously funded by education charity Edge Foundation, led by MDX with Staffordshire University, Sheffield Hallam University and the University Vocational Awards Council as the other partners. The research set out to investigate what changes to higher education structures and practices are needed for degree apprenticeships to be delivered sustainably in the long term and to identify obstacles to success.
The report includes summaries of interviews with university staff, employers and apprentices, and a survey of providers, employers and apprentices asking to what extent degree apprenticeships meet the objectives of increasing social mobility, productivity and sustainability. It makes recommendations under six headings for providers, employers and government. The research has previously been presented at four dissemination events over the past six months, including a conference at MDX in early March.
We've put together some guidance to help you understand how to pay for your apprenticeship and to get value from your investment.
In April 2017, the Government introduced a compulsory levy for all companies with an annual payroll of more than £3m. The amount you pay will be 0.5% of your total payroll costs and it is collected through PAYE. The money you pay is topped up with 5% by the Government.
If you're a business in England, you can directly access their money through the Digital Apprenticeships Service. You can also select training providers and assessors, pay for training, and post vacancies. If you don't spend the money on apprenticeship training then it expires 24 months after it's issued.
If you're a non-levy paying employer then you'll share the cost of training and assessing your apprentices with government – this is called ‘co-investment’.
You'll pay 5% of the cost of training your apprentice and the government will pay 95% up to the .
If you're an employer paying the apprenticeship levy, you can make a transfer to fund apprenticeships in another organisation. Get more information from .
If you don't pay the levy, register on the to receive a transfer from another employer.
°µÍø½ûÇø are responsible for the quality of apprenticeship on-programme learning, teaching, training and assessment delivered by approved subcontractors. The University will manage and monitor all subcontractors to ensure high quality delivery is taking place that meets ESFA funding rules. °µÍø½ûÇø will carry out regular and substantial quality assurance monitoring of on programme learning, teaching, training and assessment.
In all cases, °µÍø½ûÇø will check apprentice status and eligibility in accordance with ESFA funding rules. Monitoring of subcontractors will also involve direct observation of initial guidance and assessment as well as delivery of on-programme learning, teaching, training and assessment.
For further details about our use of Subcontractors in Apprenticeships, please read our statement.
Find out how we'll work closely with you to develop and deliver a degree apprenticeship programme that's tailored for your business and where you want to go.
Get in touch with us so we can find out more about your organisation, what you want to achieve from your degree apprenticeship programme and how to fully utilise your Digital Levy funds.
We can make sure you get the most out of a degree apprenticeship by helping you to:
We can support you to recruit the right people. We can help you assess new candidates and existing members of your workforce who want to join the degree programme.
°µÍø½ûÇø’s Centre for Apprenticeships and Skills will provide the professional support you need to understand what you're required to do when employing an apprentice. We can guide you through initial legal and operational compliance, and further support you throughout the apprenticeship journey. We can also help you set up and access your digital levy payments to fund your apprenticeships.
Apprentices are part of our student community - like any other learner. They can make the most of our outstanding learning environment and be supported by University tutors to help them achieve their learning goals.
