Learning in Context: A First Look at a Graduate Apprenticeship

Abstract

In this paper, we examine a new Graduate Apprenticeship program. Graduate Apprenticeships (and degree-level apprenticeships more broadly) were established in the United Kingdom with the expressed goal of addressing the persistent skills gap, with employers facing difficulties in recruiting adequately skilled employees, and at the same time promoting opportunities for students who would not have otherwise pursued a computing degree. We take a 360-degree view of this novel program and explore why the university chose to pursue it, why the employers decided to participate in it, and how the students are experiencing it. To do so, we draw on three kinds of data: life story interviews with students in the first cohort of the Graduate Apprenticeship that focus on the individual learning journeys that brought them to the program; a consultation and series of individual interviews with employers to examine their aims for participating in the program; a diary study with all apprentices over a period of four weeks to explore the kinds of work they were doing on a day-to-day basis in their companies. In our "first look"at this program, we highlight aspects that make it particularly attractive to this student body and explore the actual work apprentices are doing in their companies after a year in the program. As well as providing local insight, we more broadly present this program in its context as an example of an evolutionary response to forces on an educational system.