In response to the report, Dr Richard Boffey, Head of AccessHE at London Higher said:
“We agree that degree apprenticeships should be a tool for enabling students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access higher education. However, we find more evidence than this report does of existing work to integrate degree apprenticeship provision into outreach strategies. This is a promising platform on which to build.
Looking across London, providers such as London South Bank University lead by example, with 45% of their degree apprentices being under 21 and half from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. The University of West London has a dedicated Apprenticeships Outreach team. Other providers in our membership not only explicitly mention expanding Degree Apprenticeship provision in their Access and Participation Plans, but have, in conjunction with this, expanded their outreach offer in this area.
The Edge Foundation’s report finds that schools with more advantaged or higher-attaining cohorts are accessing support for their students to explore Degree Apprenticeships as a route into higher education. It is important to ensure that schools with cohorts that are comparatively more socio-economically disadvantaged, or less represented in higher education, receive that support too. This is why the collaborative apprenticeship outreach programmes that we run as part of our role in the London Uni Connect consortium, such as our Futures Week initiative, which is co-delivered with Amazing Apprenticeships, explicitly target disadvantaged areas and schools in London.”
