Apprentice scheme mixing study with work doubles places

An apprenticeship job scheme letting participants study for an honours degree while in full-time employment, in a bid to tackle skills gaps in key areas of Scottish business, has had the number of places more than doubled.

Sally Smith said both apprentices and their employers benefit from day one. Picture: contributed.

Napier University has upped the intake of its graduate apprenticeship (GA) to 185 from 90, and its portfolio is expanding into two new areas – data science and engineering and design and manufacture – in the forthcoming academic year.

GAs, developed by Skills Development Scotland (SDS), with support from the European Social Fund, were created to boost links between education and industry.

Anyone over the age of 16 who lives in Scotland is eligible, and there are no course fees to pay for apprentices or employers.

Participants spend about 80 per cent of their time in work and 20 per cent at university, and can qualify for entry based on both academic and relevant work experience. Employers can either hire new recruits or upskill existing staff.

Napier debuted its GA programme across three courses in the School of Computing in September 2017, expanding into the School of Engineering and Built Environment and the Business School the following year.

The third phase, starting this September, will see the enhancement of the construction and built environment framework with the addition of architectural technology to the surveying portfolio.

Sally Smith, dean of computing at Edinburgh Napier, said: “We’re delighted to get these extra places and have an opportunity to build on the successes of our apprentices to date. With our apprentices putting their skills to use immediately, both they and their employers benefit from day one.”

Kenneth Leitch, who leads the civil engineering GA programme, added: “I strongly believe that [GAs] will become a cornerstone of higher education in Scotland and this belief has been validated by our inaugural intake of students who took up apprenticeships with us last year… we expect demand for places to be high this year.”

Jonathan Clark, director of service design and innovation with SDS, said the skills-focused organisation “will continue to develop subjects that focus on a range of sectors where there is a need for highly skilled jobs”.