Join in on our 'Guess the Rep' Competition! >>

Degree apprenticeships

I’ve seen many advances of taking degree apprenticeship but what about disadvantages. I’m interested in Goldman sachs tech degree apprenticeship but I’m worried that uni graduates will have a better career progression, earning potential etc.

Reply 1

lottiedx

Original post by Degreepprentice

Hiya!
I'm an ex-Apprentice at at Tier 1 Investment Bank. My Apprenticeship wasn't a degree apprenticeship and I can tell you now that this has not hindered me in my career within Investment Banking. In fact, the shorter length of the Apprenticeship opened me up to earning a higher salary sooner!
My Apprenticeship was 14 months, it began in September 2018 and was completed by November 2019. It was made up two parts - a Level 3 Government-certified Apprenticeship and the Investment Operations Certificate supplied by the Chartered Institute for Investment & Securities (CISI). My role within the investment bank was situated in Investment Operations - Derivatives.
The Level 3 Apprenticeship was to become a "Senior Financial Services Advisor" (SFSA). This had NO correlation to the role and function in which I had been place but unfortunately there wasn't an Apprenticeship suitable to investment banking in 2018. During the Apprenticeship work, I had to twist and re-formulate questions to fit the role I was in which was difficult because retail and investment banking is so different!
The CISI Investment Operations Certificate was great and had a lot more significance to my role in Investment Operations - in-fact the 3rd module of the certificate could be selected and I chose Derivatives Operations which was specific to the area I was placed in.
Anyway, fast-forward five years and I've been met with endless career progression opportunities. The 14-month Apprenticeship length meant doors of opportunity were opened up to me a lot sooner. The investment banking industry is highly focused on experience and exposure. As long as you put in the effort and work hard, you will succeed and the opportunities are endless. Always act with enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn. It is very much an industry where once you are in, you're in and connections built along the way are super important. After 5 and a half years, I have received 3 internal promotions and have just been poached by a different Tier 1 Investment bank for a further promotion.
I'm aware Degree Apprenticeships can be an immense amount of work and lower salary for a prolonged period of time. I'm not so sure if these have changed since 2018 but if not then I would aim for a shorter length Apprenticeship if possible (unless you are interested in further studies as they are interesting to you of course).
Feel free to PM me for any further details.