Degree apprenticeships: Impacts, challenges and future opportunities

Degree Apprenticeships (DAs) present an opportunity to redefine the parameters of talent co-creation between universities and businesses. Enshrined in the apprenticeship concept and delivery is the requirement for them to be employer-led. Providers (universities, colleges, private training providers) must work in partnership with employers to co-design new programmes. The introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in April 2017 has provided a stimulus that has disrupted the ways in which universities and businesses approach the development of graduate talent. Drawing on interviews with members of the National Centre, this report considers the emerging effects that the introduction of the Levy is having on employer and provider practices. The report is broken down into three sections. First – the impacts of the Levy on both the talent strategies of employers as well as efforts to deliver social mobility aspirations. Second – emerging challenges that are preventing the positive impacts of the Levy from being realised. And finally, opportunities that our members hope might be achieved in the future as the Levy beds in and the landscape settles.