The different skills of apprentices and graduates

Abstract

In recent research we have noticed a growing engagement with apprenticeships amongst ISE members. In our Student Development Survey 2019 employers report that on average they have scaled up their recruitment of apprentices by 56% since 2016, while the number of graduates has only increased by 9%. Only time will tell if this heralds a new era in student recruitment, but the fact that 58% of respondents say that they are developing apprentices to do work that would have previously been done by graduates suggests that times are changing. However, as the apprenticeship route develops it is important for employers to think carefully about when they should recruit graduates and when they should recruit apprentices.