With all the hullabaloo surrounding the tuition fee increase, you might be thinking about gaining qualifications another way when you leave Sarum. Apprenticeships are a great way for you to enter many different industries, but are they right for you? We’ve listed five advantages and five disadvantages of doing an apprenticeship below….

We are also aware that looking for Apprenticeship vacancies can be a bit tricky so we’ve listed the places where you can search for apprenticeships in the locality both with the full list of Vacancies in Wiltshire, Salisbury based vacancies and the Governments apprenticeship website for further afield placements.

Finally, we recently had Mike Holliday from the Ask programme in to talk to students about Apprenticeships and to give students the lowdown as to what they involve, you can watch his presentation below!

Advantages

• Apprenticeships are structured training programmes which give you a chance to work (literally) towards a qualification. They help you gain the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in your chosen industry.Getting into employment earlier means there’s lots of potential for you to progress in your career quickly. You can also begin to earn a good salary much earlier on in your life. 

• Apprenticeships give you fantastic experience in the working world and show employers that you can ‘hit the ground running’. Hands-on training gives you a real chance to put your skills into practice and helps you to gain more confidence in a working environment. 

• You earn while you learn. That’s right! No student loans, no tuition fees, and, hopefully, no debt. You’ll be paid a salary by your employer, and the government tends to cover the cost of the training for most young people. 

• Choice. There are over 400 different types of apprenticeships. So whether you’re hankering after a career in business, sport, marketing or construction, there’s something for everyone. 

• Apprenticeships offer a varied learning experience. You won’t have to spend all of your days studying; most of the time you’ll be working at a company.It’s all about learning while doing, and learning from others in your industry. You can even gain higher qualifications through apprenticeships, such as HNCs, HNDs, foundation degrees or honours degrees.

Disadvantages

• Your starting salary might be much lower than that of a graduate. The minimum wage for apprentices is only £4.30 an hour. However, that is the rock bottom rate; many apprentices earn much more than this. 

• You can’t gain access to certain careers through an apprenticeship route. Having an undergraduate degree will be an essential requirement for certain careers, particularly in areas such as medicine and science.Graduates are valued by most employers, so you need to think carefully about your options.

•  If you do want to gain a higher qualification through an apprenticeship, it will take much longer and the range of courses you’ll be able to study might be more limited than if you applied with A-levels. 

• You might find that you’ll miss out on the added benefits of staying in full-time education and the depth of learning that a degree offers. 

• Starting salaries for graduates tend to be higher. A 2014 Labour Force Survey showed that, on average, those with a degree earn more money per hour than those with NVQ-level qualifications.

Apprenticeships in Salisbury has been set up to support young people in making well-informed decisions about their future careers. It will list local Apprenticeship vacancies and has been set up to help students see all local vacancies in one place.

We have put together a list of all the current vancancies within the South West. Please either click here or on the image to download the latest spreadsheet of available positions.

The Governments find an apprenticeship website for all vacancies in England. Click here to start your search.