The UK authorities in 2015 set a goal of making 3 million apprenticeships by 2020, as a way to fulfill its imaginative and prescient of creating a knowledge-based financial system. To this finish, an apprenticeship levy of 0.5 % was launched in 2017, which was utilized to all companies with payrolls in extra of £3 million. As of 2017, Levy had raised £2.7 billion for apprenticeships within the UK.
Most UK apprenticeships had been nonetheless of the standard kind, involving a mix of vocational coaching and employment. Nonetheless, these conventional vocational apprenticeships declined by 18 % (or 165,000) between 2017 and 2019. In the identical interval, the demand for brand spanking new diploma apprenticeships elevated from just a few hundred to over 13,500. As of 2021, greater than half of the UK’s 164 universities had been providing diploma apprenticeship programmes.
“Younger persons are recognizing the advantages provided by diploma apprenticeship … in comparison with conventional vocational apprenticeships.”
Importantly, the UK College students’ Workplace present in 2019 that 25 % of diploma apprenticeship college students wouldn’t have gone to college as a consequence of monetary issues.
The lesson from the UK is evident: more and more, younger persons are recognizing the advantages provided by diploma apprenticeships over conventional vocational apprenticeships by way of place, pay and future-proofing.
The outcomes of the Australian Authorities’s Jobs and Abilities Summit in September embrace a dedication to create hundreds of recent power apprenticeships and digital apprenticeships. The UK expertise factors to a rising demand for extra conventional vocational apprenticeships in addition to diploma apprenticeships.
Cyber Academy, a partnership between Deloitte, College of Wollongong, TAFE NSW and Swinburne College, provides UK-style diploma apprenticeships in cyber safety. Beginning in 2023, the Cyber Academy may have a whole bunch of scholars sponsored by trade and authorities employers who will bear on-the-job coaching in addition to three years of examine.
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Diploma apprenticeships present a approach for employers to construct workforce pipelines in areas the place there’s a crucial ability scarcity and intense competitors for expertise. For employers, this can be a excellent funding. It additionally will increase range within the workforce of the long run by bettering college examine alternatives for college kids from fairness backgrounds.
The success of diploma apprenticeships within the UK supplies a mannequin for Australia to deal with the talents scarcity and develop a extremely expert workforce for future financial progress.