Apprenticeships were pitched as the next-best thing to a university degree when they were rolled out in the '90s. After a rocky start, by 2010 half a million millennials in the U.K. were enrolled in the scheme that enables workers to earn money while they receive on-the-job training.
But now, Gen Z is bucking that trend.
Despite the government’s push to create more apprenticeships in the U.K.—and despite the downplaying of the necessity of college degrees from leaders like Apple's Tim Cook and Virgin's Richard Branson—young people just aren’t taking it up. In fact, since 2016 the number of youngsters starting apprenticeships has fallen sharply by 31% in England, according to the CIPD’s new report.
This was particularly acute among small businesses, where the number of apprentices enrolling declined by 49%, compared to just a 14% drop in large firms with 250 or more employees.
What’s more, while Gen Zers are shunning apprenticeships, millennials are still eyeing up vocational training in order to enter management without the high price tag of an MBA.
According to the research, the majority of apprentices across the U.K. who started in 2022 were over 25 years old, with the majority of them taking up a “higher apprenticeship”—the most advanced qualification offered—in business, administration, and law.
In Scotland specifically, the number of new apprentices in their late twenties has doubled since 2019.
Degrees are no longer the apple of employer’s eyes
The uptick in apprenticeship schemes came as degrees fell out of favor with employers.
Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple have all eliminated their long-held degree requirements for jobs to remove barriers to entry and recruit more diverse talent. Meanwhile, recruiters globally are five times more likely to search for new hires by skills over higher education.
Similarly, Cisco's top executive in the U.K. doesn't have a college degree and doesn't think young aspiring workers need one either.
"I never did anything academically beyond my GCSEs [exams taken at 16 in the U.K.] and never went to university," David Meads Cisco's U.K. and Ireland CEO recently told Fortune. "But you can fast forward 40 years and here I am."
“In university, you come out with whatever degree you may get, but it’s almost certainly saddled with debt,” he added. “Is that better than on-the-job experience where you’re rotating through different parts of our organization, and living the reality and not just the theory?”
He’s not the first CEO to praise skipping out on college to join the world of work as soon as possible.
Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin, has repeatedly urged young people to ditch university in favor of the “school of life”.
Meanwhile, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has echoed that there is a “mismatch between the skills that are coming out of colleges and what the skills are that we believe we need in the future.” It’s why, he said aspiring coders in particular don’t need a degree to be successful, at the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting.
Even when looking at the Fortune 500, the CEOs of five top 20 companies, including Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek and Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, hold no graduate degree, proving that it’s not a requirement to reach the highest level in business.
But Gen Z isn't convinced
Clearly, the top-level praise for apprenticeships and the shift to skills-based hiring isn’t convincing aspirational Gen Zers. Instead, they’re increasingly opting to go down the more traditional route of college.
The National Center for Education Statistics predicts college enrollment in America will bounce back after a 10-year decline. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in the U.K. the number of 18-year olds applying to go to university has been rising sharply in the last two years, following 5 years of stagnation.
What’s more, apprenticeships have traditionally provided a route to well-paid, secure careers for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds, but recently there’s been a shift.
Now, even Gen Zers from a lower socioeconomic upbringing are shunning on-the-job training in favor of going to university.
Research shows there has been a 36% decline in apprenticeship starts by people from disadvantaged backgrounds, compared with 23% for others. Meanwhile, 28% of the 18-year-olds who enrolled in university this year come from deprived areas, compared with just under 18% in 2013.
