Degree apprenticeships provide a tailor-made programme of study to suit the needs of both apprentices and employers. Providing a broad palette of practical and theoretical education which is directly related to the apprentice's job, degree apprenticeships offer the significant advantage of a funded pathway to an honours degree, several years of industrial experience and professional qualifications.
Degree apprenticeships are also helping diversify the workforce in different areas of the built environment sector. Of the 18 apprentices enrolled on the Chartered Town Planning Masters Degree Apprenticeship programme, for example, 11 are women.
One is Alishba Emmanuel, currently an Apprentice Planning Officer working at Uttersfield District Council. Alishba said: "The support from the university and the workplace has been more than I could ask for. The scheduling really helps with enabling us to do the apprenticeship without impeding our ability to get through our working day."
Noel Painting, programme lead for , said: "These apprenticeships will allow local companies to provide their existing employees and potential recruits with a route to chartered status. The apprenticeships are strongly linked with our existing surveying degree courses and will have accreditation from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. These new routes really strengthen our ties with industry, allowing us to deliver education that matches the skills required by employers for these roles."
The university works with a range of partner employers in the region. These include West Sussex County Council, which currently sponsors four apprentices across the Civil Engineering and Chartered Town Planning programmes, and will be sponsoring further apprentices for the Environmental Practitioner programme.
Tom King, Senior Highway Steward for West Sussex County Council, is undertaking the Civil Engineering Degree Apprenticeship. He said: "When I’m studying at university, I'm learning things that directly relate to what I’m doing at work. In highway maintenance, I'm dealing with the reactive side of engineering, like floods and potholes. So, when we learned about hydraulics there were direct links to the rivers and ditches I’ve been dealing with in my job."
The university's Vice-Chancellor Professor Debra Humphris said: "The University of 麻豆果冻传媒 is a technical and professional university, very much focused on courses that will educate an important part of the future workforce."
Contact the University of 麻豆果冻传媒's find out more about apprenticeships at university.