The many career benefits of apprenticeships
On-the-job training combined with a qualification provides apprentices with a solid first step on the scientific career ladder
Going to university straight from school seems like the only path for a successful career – particularly in science – but this isn’t true for a new cohort of science apprentices like Madison Sturgess. Sturgess is about to complete her level 3 apprenticeship as a trainee scientist at Reading Scientific Services Limited (RSSL) and is convinced she will be able to develop a flourishing career in chemistry. Many of her graduate colleagues now wish they had also taken this route. ‘They actually found it quite difficult to get jobs after their degree, so I think I’ve definitely made the right choice and have been able to get all of this actual real-life experience,’ she says.
The reappraisal of the UK’s apprenticeship training started with the government-commissioned Sainsbury report on technical education in 2016, which found that the difficulties filling technical roles experienced by UK industries were being exacerbated by a system that pushes students towards a university-based academic education. Those who did not go to university were abandoning Stem careers altogether. The solution proposed was to create two distinct post-16 career pathways: an ‘academic’ one and a ‘technical’ one based on apprenticeships that would allow school-leavers to work in an array of Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) roles while studying at the same time.
The training models vary nationally in the UK, but include a two-year basic lab technician apprenticeship (level 3 in England) and a laboratory scientist apprenticeship (level 6) that takes an extra three years and provides the apprentice with a chemistry or life sciences degree, in addition to their vocational qualification. In Scotland a ‘modern apprenticeship’ often includes working towards an HND in applied science (equivalent to university foundation level).