I had three of the best years of my life at university. I went to Cheltenham College of Higher Education which became the University of Gloucester whilst I was there. I spent three years with 11 hour per week lectures, playing football, drinking £1 pints and vodka red bulls, and made some friends for life.

I also came out with £38ks worth of debt. And this was in 2002. I was the first year of students taking repayable loans as opposed to grants, so the connection between attending uni and large debts hadn’t consolidated itself.

Now we are hearing of students leaving uni with a non-skills related qualification and over £50k worth of debt. You can certainly understand why vocational and other routes are becoming more attractive to the future workforce.

University is all about life skills

Cheltenham taught me how to live away from home, budget, pay bills and live in the real world during my three years there. What I don’t remember from my time at university is the curriculum, content, or anything I could take into a real job, right now.

My degree was in Sport and Exercise Science – a tenuous link to L&D if one must be made. I quickly realised I didn’t want to be a PE teacher or physio during my university days, but I believed I was stuck in three years of the same course and the debt that came with it.

What I don’t remember from my time at university is the curriculum, content, or anything I could take into a real job, right now

Skills first?

Research from McKinsey and LinkedIn indicates that employers are looking for skills that give employees more power than ever before. 

I’m not completely divorcing degrees from skills. But there is a gap between the academic position that a university degree provides and a skills-based toolkit that can be obtained via an apprenticeship, minus the debt.

It's impossible to find one solution that will work for everyone, but if I were making my career decisions today as a 16-18 year old, I'd choose a higher-level apprenticeship or vocational qualification with a large employer. 

We know the benefits:

• Earn whilst you learn
• No tuition fees or related debts
• Skills in the workplace
• More opportunities to find a career you can fall in love with

I’m not completely divorcing degrees from skills. But there is a gap between the academic position that a university degree provides and a skills-based toolkit that can be obtained via an apprenticeship, minus the debt

Employers must up their game

If you are an employer looking to snap up this young talent who may be put off by the expensive university experience, you need to be on your game. You can’t just sit back and expect them to come to you.

Build it and they will come

There is huge competition for the best talent in the market. Historically we’ve looked to graduates to plug the skills gap, but apprenticeships are increasingly playing their part.

I know many corporate organisations that are apprenticeship levy payers and have no idea what’s happening to that cash.

If you haven’t set up key items such as a governance committee, provider procurement strategy, deliverables and KPIs, and quality assurance of the training delivery, you are missing a trick. Plus you could be losing hundreds of thousands of pounds in your levy with the money expiring after 24 months.

We see a huge amount of time and effort focused on talent attraction, but there’s an unrealistic expectation that the apprenticeship training provider will pick up all the slack. You wouldn’t do this with a £100k leadership development programme, so why do we think this is acceptable when working with apprenticeship providers?

We need to start taking proactive steps to set up apprenticeships for success in our organisation.

If you are an employer looking to snap up this young talent who may be put off by the expensive university experience, you need to be on your game. You can’t just sit back and expect them to come to you

Don’t just pay lip service to future talent

It's so easy to jump into skills needs, with AI being a classic example of this currently.

With the acceleration of change and digital transformation, your business needs new ideas and innovations.

But this comes at a price. 

Our talent management strategy must identify how our apprenticeship programme can deliver value, what the investment from the levy is monthly, and what return we are getting from providers. This means working hand in glove with them. 

We must have all the key stakeholders not just engaged but fully committed to making apprenticeships work.

Most importantly, those who are line managing your early careers folk must understand the additional pastoral care and effort needed to support those who might be experiencing things in the workplace for the first time.

Effort is needed for greatness

Sounds tricky? Like anything, nothing worth doing is easy, and it’s much easier when you know what you’re doing. 

But many don’t and are missing the opportunity to attract those who are wavering when it comes to their next steps.

Our talent management strategy must identify how our apprenticeship programme can deliver value, what the investment from the levy is monthly, and what return we are getting from providers. This means working hand in glove with them

Next steps

• Understand what other great organisations are doing. Examples include the NHS, Costa Coffee, Miller and Carter and Jaguar Land Rover
• Don’t expect young talent to come to you because you are a big brand. Make it clear, through a great programme and opportunities, why talent should come your way
• Be fully invested in and collaborating with your apprenticeship training provider as a two-way partnership to get your attraction activities right
• Engage with specialists in the market who can help you cut through jargon and make sense of the detail

A final point

You need to make this a priority.

Take the resource you have in this area and think about doubling it. Every organisation I have ever worked with that is looking to scale up its early careers proposition has been drastically under-resourced. 

That might cause you to take a breath, but it will make things better going forward for you, your organisation, and those who go on to join you and have a wonderful career.

If you enjoyed this, read: Forgetting the ‘deskless’: Don't neglect essential skills training