The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) says that the UK is “obsessed” with university degrees, saying that it found five years after qualifying, a higher-level apprentice could earn £5,000 than the average graduate.
A higher (level-4) apprenticeship is equivalent to completing the first year of a bachelor’s degree. Training is offered in a range of roles including as a brewer, countryside ranger, fraud investigator, data analyst, and many more. A level-4 apprentice typically earns an average of £37,300 after five years, with the average university graduate earning £32,100, according to an analysis from CSJ of government data.
Meanwhile, an average student has debts of £53,000 after graduating last year, compared with level-4 apprentices whose education and training is funded by employers and the government. At least half of graduates, the CSJ concluded, or 240,000 of this year’s freshers in England, according to The Times, are better off taking a higher-level apprenticeship and avoiding the debt.
The UK has three university graduates between 25 and 34 years old, for every one vocationally trained young person, compared to the Netherlands where the ratio is two to one, and Germany where it is one to one.
For those in “low-value” degrees, the lowest quartile of graduate earners, research found a big difference in their pay compared with apprenticeships. Five years after graduating, the lowest quarter of earners made just £24,800 on average, or £12,500 less than a level-4 apprentice.
However, the report did not examine longer-term salaries because it did not have comparable data from the government.
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