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Will apprenticeships take over from degrees?

Just at the European Youth Event at eu parliament in Strasbourg having a debate about whether apprenticeships are the future for young people.

Do you think in the future more people will do apprenticeships than degrees? Will the skills learned during apprenticeships make degrees less valuable?
Well, having relevant work experience in a sector is more beneficial than knowing how to prove that the mean of the score vector is 0, IMO.
Original post by Queen Cersei
Just at the European Youth Event at risk parliament in Strasbourg having a debate about whether apprenticeships are the future for young people.

Do you think in the future more people will do apprenticeships than degrees? Will the skills learned during apprenticeships make degrees less valuable?


I personally feel that apprenticeships pigeonhole people into a certain career track whilst university keeps a bunch of doors open.

The statistics say roughly ~80% of grad jobs don't require a specific degree, but they of course do require a degree. You develop strong academic and social skills whilst at university, and have the opportunity to meet with a multitude of employers on campus as well as access to geared internship schemes during the holidays. All of this exposure, and the heavy investment (some companies fork out almost tens of millions of pounds on grad recruitment) from the private sector will continue to pave a way for students (especially those who are switched on) to go into gainful employment after their degrees.

Now, apprenticeships are fab. There are some really top quality ones out there that combine transferrable qualifications with work experience, but the issue is once you're in the apprenticeship, you're locked in for 4-6 years. As long as people are alright with that, I think they'd be a great path to take. However, university provides one with a bit more optionality.

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Original post by SecretDuck
Well, having relevant work experience in a sector is more beneficial than knowing how to prove that the mean of the score vector is 0, IMO.



Unless someone is in a job which requires pretty extensive mathematical knowledge. I'm pretty glad the engineers designing the control systems that keep planes in the sky understand complex analysis.

Apparantly they should have gotten apprenticeships instead though.
Original post by JuliusDS92
Unless someone is in a job which requires pretty extensive mathematical knowledge. I'm pretty glad the engineers designing the control systems that keep planes in the sky understand complex analysis.

Apparantly they should have gotten apprenticeships instead though.


On the other hand, maths proofs and rewriting them in plain English gave me a small moneyspinner. :biggrin:
Original post by JuliusDS92
Unless someone is in a job which requires pretty extensive mathematical knowledge. I'm pretty glad the engineers designing the control systems that keep planes in the sky understand complex analysis.

Apparantly they should have gotten apprenticeships instead though.


Maybe they did both :- http://www.baesystems.com/en/careers/careers-in-the-uk/apprenticeships/current-opportunities/preston/aerospace-engineering--higher----mai---preston

One feature of apprenticeships is that an employer has some 'skin in the game' and will try select the very best candidates rather than lowering the bar until it's filled a number of places, which is the situation at unis.

Unfortunately we don't have as many companies of the size and excellence of Bae as we used to - SME sized businesses might also need engineers and be great places to work but they can't afford to invest so much in talent.
Original post by Queen Cersei
Just at the European Youth Event at eu parliament in Strasbourg having a debate about whether apprenticeships are the future for young people.

Do you think in the future more people will do apprenticeships than degrees? Will the skills learned during apprenticeships make degrees less valuable?


The hidden hand mechanism will be operative.

Supply and demand: whilst there maybe a shift in favour of one or the other, eventually this will cause an imbalance in the market.

Let us say many people are attracted to apprenticeships due to favourable working conditions, salary and pension opportunities et al.

So, people will gravitate towards that sector, reducing the number of candidates who go onto university.

In time though, (and for the purposes of this analogy I am assuming full free market policy, and no regulation via central government through quotas or caps), increased volume of tradesmen will cause an increase in competition. Increased competition means that the supply has increased, and the price of the services will drop. Tougher to make money, and so favourable conditions drop.

This would cause a gravitation towards the degree programmes. And vice versa.

Le Chatier's principle as applied to economics imo :smile:
Original post by Joinedup


Well quite.

My point is one doesn't replace the other.

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