Middle-class teenagers are choosing apprenticeships over degrees because they want better value for money, a big graduate employer has said.
Kevin Ellis — chairman of PwC, the accountants and consultants — said a rising number of school-leavers were opting for apprenticeships over traditional university education, fearing the high level of student debt.
He said: “More sixth formers and potential graduates’ families will be worried about yet more debt.”
PwC hires roughly 2,000 graduates and apprentices every year, of which a growing proportion are school-leavers starting as apprentices. Writing in The Times as part of the Times Education Commission, Ellis said the schemes were attractive to recruits and allowed firms to ensure that young people arrived in the workplace equipped with the right skills to thrive.
He wrote: “These programmes also allow us to tailor degrees for particular business needs such as technology.”
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The firm works with universities on degree apprenticeships, which allow recruits to study without paying tuition fees. The first cohort of PwC technology apprentices graduated this summer from their four-year course with the University of Birmingham. The firm has also dropped its requirement for graduate recruits to gain a 2:1 or higher in their degree, in order to attract a wider range of talent.
Ellis told The Sunday Telegraph that the proportion of PwC’s new staff on apprenticeship schemes rather than in graduate roles was likely to grow. He added: “Everyone who has gone to university at the moment, has gone to university in a previous world, pre-cost of living crisis.”
Degree apprenticeships from firms such as PwC, Rolls-Royce and Dyson are highly sought after, with some schemes receiving more applications per place than Oxford or Cambridge.
Ed Elliott, head of the Perse School in Cambridge, said one of his pupils turned down a place at Cambridge to join a Dyson degree-apprenticeship scheme. He expects more pupils to consider apprenticeships above university due to the rising costs of studying.
Ellliott said: “People are starting to say, well, hold on, going to university is really expensive. I’ve got to start my adult postgraduate life with between £40,000 and £60,000 worth of debt. What are the long-term consequences [for] when I can afford my first house? When might I be able to retire?”
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The Sutton Trust charity, which promotes social mobility, reported that 5 per cent of degree apprentices were from low income groups, compared with 6.7 per cent of undergraduates.
