Degree apprenticeships for employers
Develop future talent in your organisation through applied learning.
Develop future talent in your organisation through applied learning.
ARU is one of the UK’s leading providers of degree apprenticeships and in the top 10% of Higher Education providers in the country for skills and enterprise. Over 1,000 regional and national employers have chosen to partner with ARU on apprenticeships for our collaborative approach to finding learning and skill-shortage solutions.
We offer a comprehensive range of university courses that are designed to fulfil your workforce needs whilst providing exciting career development opportunities for your apprentices.
We will support you in attracting and developing high calibre apprentices who will bring talent, skills, energy, and diversity to your organisation, as well as developing and retaining your existing staff.
Why partner with ARU?
If you have any questions or would like to discuss any aspect of degree apprenticeships, then our dedicated Degrees at Work team are here to help. Get in touch today at [email protected]
Driven by employer demand, we offer apprenticeships in Management and Leadership, Digital Technology and Data Science, Health, the Built Environment, Public Services, and more.
Explore our Degree Apprenticeships
Our employer partners explain why apprenticeships work so well for their organisations. They highlight benefits including cost-effective training, attracting and retaining the best talent, impact driven learning, to investing in and developing their workforce, and more
Apprenticeships offer participating employers a wide range of advantages and benefits. For example, your organisation can:
Our dedicated Degrees at Work team will be on hand to help and advise you throughout the entire process. Our apprenticeship experts will help you decide if degree apprenticeships are right for your business, get you started, and provide ongoing support throughout the life of the apprenticeship.
An apprenticeship is a job with training, providing the opportunity to develop specific knowledge, skills, and behaviours (KSB) to prepare for specific job role. It is a collaboration between an education provider and an employer that benefits the employer and their employee.
Degree apprentices study with our university while they are working. They will be an existing team member or a new recruit to the organisation, of any age, and at any point in their career. So, your organisation will gain a highly skilled employee with higher level academic qualifications, relevant, practical skills, and an intimate working knowledge of your business and culture.
Supporting a degree apprentice will help you to fill the skills gaps in your workforce and to develop your existing talent through relevant degree courses, funded through the Apprenticeship Levy. Following an apprenticeship standard, which sets out the KSB required, your apprentice will be required to protect a certain number of their contracted working hours to learn ‘off-the-job’, either with the University (on campus or online) or in the workplace, as agreed and set out in the apprenticeship contracts.
We will monitor these hours and the progress the apprentice makes in acquiring new KSB through regular progress review meetings, which are attended by the apprentice and a representative of both ARU and your organisation. These meetings provide opportunities for you and ARU to work together in ensuring the apprentice is supported throughout their programme and given every opportunity to succeed.
An apprenticeship is concluded on the successful passing of an End Point Assessment (EPA). This is either integrated into the final assessments of ARU’s course or managed through an independent assessment body once ARU’s course has been successfully passed.
If you operate in England and your annual payroll is over £3 million, you pay a levy of 0.5% of your payroll into a Digital Account.
This account is exclusively used to fund apprenticeship programmes.
The Government will top up the employer’s account with a 10% bonus, so effectively you will draw £1.10 for every £1.00 you put in.
If your organisation is not required to pay the levy, you will only pay 5% of the cost of the apprenticeship programme. The government pays the remaining 95%.
Additional funding is available for certain other criteria.
Funds in the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) account are exclusively used to pay for apprenticeship programmes. Funds will expire 24 months after they enter a digital account unless they are spent on apprenticeship training.
Once you’ve agreed to invest in apprenticeship training, and the apprenticeship has started, monthly payments will be automatically drawn from your digital account and sent to us as the provider.
This spreads the cost over the lifetime of the apprenticeship. You will see funds entering the digital account each month as you pay the levy, and funds leaving the account regularly each month as you pay for training.
To maximise the potential benefits of degree apprenticeships to your organisation, carefully consider the following:
Identify which degree apprenticeships would be most relevant to your business strategy
Where will your organisation be in five years’ time and, consequently, which skills should you be reinforcing or putting in place?
Carry out a skills audit
What is the range and extent of the skills presently available within your company? Which roles present the greatest challenge in recruitment and retention?
Identify future leaders
Which employees are demonstrating the traits and behaviours to become future leaders or major contributors to business growth? How can you invest in their development to improve the likelihood of retaining them? Answering these questions will help you to identify the ‘skills gap’ that could be effectively filled by degree apprentices.
Calculate the value of funds available
What funding might you expect to receive via the Apprenticeship Levy for investment in degree apprenticeships? What would be the most effective way of using these funds to meet your business objectives? Our specialist Degrees at Work team will provide expert advice on how to use degree apprenticeships to your best advantage. They will guide and support you at every stage of the process of setting up and implementing your degree apprenticeship programme.
At ARU we offer a rapidly growing range of degree apprenticeships across Management and Leadership, Digital Technology and Data Science, Health, the Built Environment, and Public Services.
For Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), higher and degree apprenticeships are a central element of our work to support the economic, cultural, and social wellbeing of our region and to deliver an outstanding and inclusive educational experience. ARU’s strategy Designing our Future commits our University to substantially increase the number and range of degree apprenticeships we offer.
This policy defines the rationale by which the University will subcontract apprenticeship provision funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the measures in place to ensure that any subcontracted delivery enhances our provision to apprentice and employer.
ARU subcontracts apprenticeship provision if this enables us and our employers to enhance the quality of our offer and access specialist expertise and resources that would otherwise not be available to apprentices.
Our subcontracting falls under two categories:
Our procurement policy offers a framework to ensure that our subcontractors offer value for money. The quality of delivery is monitored in line with our subcontracting and outlined in our contract with the subcontractor.
Prior to engagement, all of our subcontractors go through a selection and approval process which ensures that:
Prior to engagement, a contract management plan is agreed with the subcontracted provider. This defines how ARU will manage the contract to ensure quality provision and value for the apprentice and employer.
All subcontracted delivery is subject to ARU’s quality controls as laid out in our Academic Regulations, Codes of Practice and other policies as well as annual financial checks. This includes observation of delivery, feedback from apprentices and monitoring the quality of assessed work. All assessment on ARU apprenticeships is moderated to ensure that the expected standards are met.
Subcontracted delivery is subject to an annual subcontracting standard assurance review, as required by the ESFA funding rules and Subcontracting Standard, and performed by an external auditor.
ARU ensure that employers are aware of, and agree to, any subcontracting arrangements before they commit to an apprenticeship programme with us.
ARU will provide a range of services when subcontracting to ensure high quality provision. These are defined in the contract management plan, and include:
The overall contract value with each employer will be broken down into:
Funding retained by ARU for managing and monitoring delivery subcontractors, support activities offered to subcontractors and funding retained for quality assurance. The actual costs are determined on a case by case basis based on the requirements of the subcontracted apprenticeship programme – this is not expected to exceed 20% of the sub-contract value.
In addition, ARU’s written agreement with each employer outlines these costs, the services associated with them and each provider’s role within the delivery of the apprenticeship.
As lead provider, ARU works with our Police Force partners to deliver our PCDA programme. ARU retains between £242-£342 per learner for the management of the programme.
As lead provider, ARU works with Cambridge Spark to deliver our Data Scientist programme. ARU retains £300 per learner for the management of the programme.
As lead provider, ARU works with Citrus to deliver our Construction Quantity Surveyor Degree Apprenticeship and Construction Site Management Degree Apprenticeship. ARU retains £60 per learner for the management of the programme.
As lead provider, ARU works with Unipart to deliver our Improvement Leader programme. ARU retains £300 per learner for the management of the programme.
As lead provider, ARU works with ACL Essex to deliver the Level 2 Functional Skills in Maths and English programmes to our apprentices. ARU retains £45 per learner for the management of the programme.
To ensure it continues to meet the University's needs and the requirements of the University's contract with the ESFA and all relevant funding regulations, this Policy is subject to annual review by ARU’s Apprenticeship Subcommittee, which reports through to Senate in terms of academic governance, and is signed by our Vice Chancellor.
Last updated June 2023
If you're already partnering with us, then we'd like to make you aware of some important information that you should know.
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“Apprenticeships allow us to develop our own workforce, engage in their experience and employ and retain the best people around the country. 90% of our apprentices have stayed with us, which is a real testament to the training they receive from CUH and the learning they receive from ARU.”
DANClinical Matron, CUH
“ARU is a university that completely understands business. The apprentices at Rhotic Media have absolutely succeeded and have made a material difference to the business."
JOEFounder, Rhotic Media
“The apprenticeship supports our team to achieve our overall business goals and our apprentice in achieving her career goals. It means we can keep her within the team and help her to grow."
EMMADirector, Big Bear Creative
If you’d like to discuss any aspect of degree apprenticeships, then our designated team of experts would be delighted to hear from you.