This PLMR research has revealed approximately one in four (26 per cent) teachers feel confident helping students pursue an apprenticeship application – despite almost 70 per cent agreeing they are excellent options for the young people they teach.
This lack of confidence also means only 26 per cent of teachers of sixth form students have helped students apply for an apprenticeship in the last two years, compared to more than three quarters of teachers (79 per cent) who have advised students on applying for university, according to the study of more than 5,000 teachers undertaken by leading communications agency PLMR and Teacher Tapp, the teacher survey app.
The findings indicate that despite widespread positive perceptions of apprenticeships, more work is needed to help teachers promote them to students. This will make sure students can be fully informed about the opportunities available to them so they can make decisions more likely to lead to long-term success.
As a result, the report recommends that a new centralised application system be introduced for all apprenticeships, combining both university and apprenticeship applications within UCAS’ portal. This would streamline the process and make information fully accessible to young people and teachers so that they can see in the same place all the apprenticeships that are available. At the moment, no employers have to list their apprenticeships anywhere and those that are listed might be on multiple different sites.
The research also revealed disparities in teachers’ confidence when considering socio-economic factors. Teachers working in schools with a high percentage of students eligible for free school meals (FSM) were found to be more confident than peers in low-FSM schools when supporting students with apprenticeship applications (29 per cent vs 24 per cent) – highlighting a possible correlation between post-18 pathways and target regions for the Government’s levelling-up agenda. In contrast, teachers across both high- and low-FSM schools were almost equally confident in helping students apply for university (85 per cent and 86 per cent respectively).