The last few years has seen a real push to try and get more students into higher study whether that be apprenticeships or university. Recently there has been a bigger campaign for students to take the apprentice route than the years before which were very university driven and that it was the best option for students after a college if they wanted a good job. This has opened up a big debate on which one is the better option. University or apprenticeships?
Universities have seen the biggest the largest amount of UK 18 year olds applying for university, with 241,585 gaining a place through UCAS (Universities and College Admissions Service) with an overall 2.32 million students studying in UK higher education institution.
However, apprenticeships have seen a decrease in applicants. In September 2016/2017 there was nearly 80,000 apprentice starts, whereas in 2017/2017 there has been a fall closer to 65,000 starts. So why is university deemed to be the best option?
When students were asked why university was the path they choose there was many explanations such as; it gives them time to decide the future as they are given three years to choose what career option and field of industry they want to go into, whilst also learning many versatile skills that can be applied to many different task in any path the students choose. “I think that university allows you to be more flexible with your future and what you want to choose, while as a apprenticeships feels like you have to decide from the start and all the skills you learn are centred around one career option” said Joseph a computer science student at the University of York.
Another reason that many students are so university forward is that a university degree valued more by employers and even though there are now more paths to get qualifications for example an apprenticeship. A degree seems to give the impression that you are more qualified the subject area and makes young adults think that they need to have that degree to progress to future career that they want to achieve. The York student said that “one of the main reasons I chose to go to university was because most career options demand a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in my subject field.”
A big positive of choosing to go to university is the wide range of subjects that you can choose to study. Many universities offer a course that overviews many different topics in the course area and then courses more tailored to a certain aspect to an industry. For example, if you were to study media you could choose between course such as media production, media production: Film and Television, Film studies and Media Production: journalism. This allows you to get the basic skills needed for the wider industry whilst being able to focus on a specific topic that interests you, which you might not be able to find in apprenticeships as they tend to be focused on a singular job in the industry such as an engineer.
Obviously one of the biggest appeals of university to teenagers is the social life, that often gets shown in the media in films. Universities allows students to have a new independence that they might not have received if they didn’t go such as being able to move away from home into student accommodations which allows them to make their own choices. “university provides a great independence as you learn to do things by yourself like being able to budget money, as well as meeting people from other places with different life experience which I think helps grow as your own person” said Joseph.
Although there’s been a greater push in showing students that apprenticeships are also a valid option if they don’t feel university is for them there still seems to be a negative stigma about choosing that path.
Even though in theory a qualification attained by an apprenticeship is just as good as a qualification from an university they still don’t appear to hold the same value,” apprenticeships are presented as something you choose if you’re not smarter enough to get into university but that not the case it’s just a different education path if you like to be more hands on or don’t feel like moving to university is for them” said Callum an apprentice at the NHS.
One of the positives that seem to attract young adults to apprenticeships is that you get to earn an income whilst learning and no debt! A huge benefit of apprenticeships is that if you’re under the age of 25 costs are covered by the government meaning you don’t have to pay anything back unlike university students. Also, above that statistics show that an apprentice’s starting salary is estimated around £18,00 where as a university graduates would be around £14,000.
Apprenticeships allows you to learn and experience work in the real industry. “its great place to start because it gets you into the industry and you learn right in the heart of it” said the NHS apprentice. This kind of experiences allows you to learn the necessary skills for your career choices and means that you are prepared for future careers because you’ve already had the experience, whereas university is much more learning by sitting form books and lectures.
In the end no option is better or worse than the other it’s all down to what suits you better as a person. If moving away and having 3 years more of classroom-based teaching isn’t for you than an apprenticeship would more likely be suited to you. Whereas if you’d like to have more options on what to study and time to think about your career path then university could be a great option. “ I don’t feel like I’ve missed out by not going to university earning a salary allows you to have the social life and independence that is advertised at uni” said Callum. Both options can get you to the career you strive for but it’s what you make and learn for your education and experiences than can help drive your future forward.