Queen Mary University of London: Queen Mary celebrates Apprenticeship Week with another record-breaking year

Queen Mary was very proud, in 2015, to be the first Russell Group university to launch its first degree apprenticeship. These programmes perfectly represent our mission to open the doors of opportunity for anyone who has the potential to succeed, regardless of the background.

Since 2015, we have gone from strength to strength. In 2019 we launched the UK’s first Chartered Manager degree apprenticeship in social change. In 2021, there were 319 apprentices enrolled across exciting and beneficial programmes such as Digital and Technology Solutions, Business Management, Clinical Education and the Professional Economist.

The breadth of our offer – working with leading corporates through to well-known charities – and the depth of the educational experience our partnership with these organisations enables, is a source of considerable pride.

Today, our degree apprenticeships offer substantial work-based learning opportunities with world-leading companies such as Goldman Sachs, PwC, GlaxoSmithKline and the BBC, as well as leading charities such as Action for Children. Here, apprentices develop new knowledge and skills required across a vast range of industries.

The launch of these degree apprenticeship has also boosted diversity and widened access to education across the University. Queen Mary’s software engineer degree apprenticeship has seen a 15 per cent increase in the number of BAME apprentices as well as a 15 per cent increase in female apprentices in the last four years.

The University has long recognised that providing flexible education options and demand-led training opportunities for employers only further aids those with the potential to succeed, providing unrivalled access into expert careers, boosting job prospects, and plugging skills gaps in UK industry.

In one example of this, Queen Mary will deliver, in partnership with Newham College, employer-led higher technical education through the state-of-the-art London City Institute of Technology. Working with key employers such as Siemens Mobility, CBRE Investment Management and the Port of London Authority, the University will be able to react quickly to the current and evolving technical skills needs – with significant shortages hampering London’s development in digital, STEM and data for instance – and widen opportunities through offering flexible and affordable qualifications to learners.

Noama Chaudhry, an apprentice on the Business Management (Social Change) programme, said: “I really love that I am able to work and implement change. It is also great to be paid, have no debt, a degree under your belt and be a Chartered Manager by the end of the four years.

“I feel like I’ve grown in confidence, expertise, teamwork, leadership, communication and in every other sense professionally.”

Eileen O’Gara, Head of Apprenticeships at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Everyone at the University is incredibly excited about continuing our journey in supporting both employers and apprentices. It’s hugely rewarding to help develop our apprentices’ career aspirations as well as the future skills required for industry.”