News | Thursday, 22nd February 2024
How degree apprenticeships at Manchester Met are driving economic growth
Director of Apprenticeships, Liz Gorb MBE, shares how degree apprenticeships are supporting the University’s agenda of driving economic growth and delivering impact.
This year, Manchester Met is celebrating its 200th anniversary. As part of our celebrations, we’re showcasing our successes and the incredible work we’re doing to build a better future for all.
We sat down with Liz Gorb, Director of Apprenticeships at Manchester Met, the UK’s top university provider of degree apprenticeships (RateMyApprenticeship Awards 2019-23), to discuss how apprenticeships offer innovative paths into Higher Education, and the impact they have had for our business partners.
What impact do degree apprenticeships have on organisations, and how do they support our employer partners to drive economic growth?
Degree apprenticeships are making a significant impact on economic growth in key sectors such as health, business, creative, digital, finance, manufacturing and science, helping to address the UK’s productivity challenges, and increase opportunities for individuals. Employers gain in the long and short term from taking on apprentices, with the Cebr report 2014 estimating increased outputs for businesses of £1.8 billion in 2012-13. The same report also revealed the economic benefit of apprenticeships for all parties involved. For every £1 that is spent on apprenticeships, the national economy gains £21. This is high in comparison to other expenditures on investment such as the innovation, research and technology sectors, which range from around £4 - £7 return.
At Manchester Met our apprenticeships are helping employers recruit and develop the skills they need to grow their organisations. Our impact report, Force for Change, which we published in 2021 outlines how our degree apprenticeship programmes are benefitting our employer partners, allowing them to grow talent and reduce skills shortages. Our research highlighted that our employers valued the contribution apprentices make to their businesses, including supporting talent and growth, bringing new knowledge their organisations and encouraging progression on the career ladder. Our new report, Force for Impact, which is based on surveys of our graduates and employer, will also highlight how our apprenticeship programmes are helping employers to address professional and technical skills gaps.
But it’s not only our employer partners who are benefitting. Our apprentices also feel the value of their apprenticeship, with 98 per cent of our apprentices saying their apprenticeship had positively impacted their career growth and development.
Recently, I met Harriet Bean. Harriet is one of our Laboratory Science apprentices who chose to study a degree apprenticeship as some of her family members had spoken highly of their experience of apprenticeships, how quickly they moved up in the company, and benefits such as their financial stability and experience. Now in her final year of her degree apprenticeship at Manchester Met, Harriet is very proud that she has just bought her own house at the age of twenty-one which was only possible due to the financial stability that her job and degree apprenticeship has given her.
Being based in Manchester means that we’re located in the heart of the the fastest-growing digital and technology hub in the North of England, and the biggest outside of London. Our partnership with digital businesses in the region has allowed us to develop and deliver a range of digitally focused apprenticeships, that address the skills and knowledge gap that many businesses are facing. A report by Future.Now looking at the UK workforce digital skills gap found that the UK’s potential loss of cumulative GDP growth between 2018-2028 could be as high as £145 billion, due to inadequate digital skills. A problem that’s affecting every region, every age group, and every industry. In terms of personal prosperity, UK workers who lack essential digital skills are missing out on an estimated £5.69 billion in additional wages.
We currently deliver six digitally focused degree apprenticeship programmes including Digital and Technology Solutions (undergraduate and postgraduate level), Digital Marketing, Digital User Experience (UX), and Creative Digital Design, helping our business partners fill critical skills gaps, and supporting their business growth. We work with a range of employer partners to deliver digital skills, from SMEs to multinational organisations, to ensure our programmes are developed and updated based on industry changes to ensure they are fit for business needs.
In 2019, Manchester Met partnered with Siemens to offer degree apprenticeships. Our hybrid courses allowed Siemens apprentices to gain an undergraduate or masters degree while they work. Carl Ennis, Chief Executive of Siemens in GB and Ireland and a Manchester Met alumni, chose to partner with Manchester Met as our programmes are flexible and address new challenges, allowing Siemens to be ready to embrace the technologies of the future. Since 2017, twenty-one Siemens employees have graduated with degree apprenticeships and Carl sees degree apprenticeships as a key opportunity for his staff to reach their full potential, whilst providing Siemens with the skilled workers they need to thrive.
Another great example of this would be our employer partner Ciptex, a digital transformation consultancy organisation, based in Manchester, delivering projects around the world. As an SME, Matt Duggan, Head of Product Development at Ciptex, reported that they had a hard time recruiting digital specialists at the right level in London, so decided to move the company to Manchester on the back of their relationship with Manchester Met and the guaranteed talent pipeline. Ciptex have been working with us since 2017 and currently have five apprentices on three digital programmes, making up 12 per cent of their workforce, and demonstrating the value apprentices add to their organisation.
As a first-class sustainable university, currently rated second in the People and Planet University League and holding a position in the top three for the past eleven years, driving growth in a sustainable way is at the forefront of our mission. In 2023 we launched our Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Practitioner apprenticeship, a rapid-impact apprenticeship allowing organisations to play a vital role in boosting the green industry and supporting economic growth. We’re looking forward to our first open cohort joining this programme in May 2024.
