Many apprentices are ahead of graduates when it comes to earnings, so it’s vital to back the apprenticeship scheme

The latest ONS research comparing graduate and apprentice earnings show that nearly a third of graduates now earn less per hour than the average worker who has gone down the apprenticeship route. It adds that a similar number of graduates have either seen their incomes fall or, at best, remain at the same level over a two year period – effectively a pay cut when taking inflation into account – while apprenticeship jobs have also been declared more secure than those of graduates.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) now estimates students pay £20,000 per year for their degree, and average total student debt are therefore set to rise above the record £40,000 levels we are currently seeing. With this in mind, many of those about to head off to university for the first time this month must be asking themselves ‘Why am I bothering’?

Part of the reason is because young people don’t necessarily know what alternative options are available to them. Research conducted over the summer by AAT found that students found careers advice in schools was woefully inadequate, with nearly two thirds feeling that careers advice was deliberately skewed towards going to university and nearly half given little or no information whatsoever about vocational and technical routes into top professions.

Apprenticeships are so much more than their outdated characterisation of being suitable only for men wanting to get into manual labour. For example, two in three people studying an AAT qualification, which can provide a non-degree route to chartered accountancy, are women. Many of those will have gone down the apprenticeship route into their career.

Apprenticeships can also give individuals the chance to learn on the job straight away and start earning their first salary, while avoiding large student debt.  They can create work-ready individuals who are often retained by the employer they were with while on the apprenticeship scheme.

 Apprentices can also provide great benefit directly to their employers, providing them with a greater variety of individuals within their workplace than simply selecting from the latest crop of graduates. With the apprenticeship levy soon to come into force, we hope that the allowances it will provide will be well utilised by businesses recognising the many benefits that an apprentice can bring.

Suzie Webb is Director of Education and Development at AAT