Your guide to Graduate Apprenticeships
Now, more than ever, it’s time to make sure your workforce has the right skills and capabilities to support your organisation’s future.
Fully funded Graduate Apprenticeships are delivering talent solutions for Scotland's food and drink employers. The unique combination of academic and work-based learning is proving to be a recipe for success for more and more food and drink employers around the country.
Developed by Skills Development Scotland, in response to employer demands, Graduate Apprenticeships:
address national skills shortages in key areas, such as digital technology and engineering
allow employers to shape their workforce in line with business demands
offer a high value, low cost option for employers to retain and upskill staff
Fully-funded Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) can be an ideal way to help retain key talent
The facts and funding
Graduate Apprenticeships are jobs open to anyone over 16 who wants to work, learn and earn up to Master’s degree level.
There are 13 different Graduate Apprenticeship types available to study at SCQF Level 9 up to SCQF Level 11. These range from business management to accounting, engineering to IT.
Graduate Apprentice learning costs are funded by the Scottish Funding Council and Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). Funding covers the full duration of the programme and Graduate Apprentices apply directly to SAAS for the funding.
There is a guide for employers about SAAS funding for Graduate Apprenticeships.
What’s involved
Of course, there are some responsibilities that come with receiving funding. Graduate Apprentices are just like any other employee of a business, so the employer pays their wages.
A Graduate Apprentice employer meets with the learning provider, also known as the delivery partner, to agree the structure of the Graduate Apprentice programme. Learning providers can be educational institutions such as colleges, universities and schools.
This includes:
assessment methods
time spent at university
projects that will need to be supported in the workplace
The employer also:
attends regular meetings with the delivery partner and the Graduate Apprentice, who is their employee
mentors the Graduate Apprentice and gets involved in training and assessment elements, as agreed with the learning provider
The role of the employer depends on the individual partnership between the employer and the university, college or other learning provider. The integration of work and learning counts towards the qualification, meaning that attendance at university can be flexible, based on the employer’s requirements.
You can search for learning providers in your area.
Hear from the people involved
Diageo engineer Iona McGhie has started her Graduate Apprenticeship working with the firm and studying for her degree in Mechanical Engineering with Edinburgh’s Heriot Watt University.
“I had always wanted to take my education further and the Graduate Apprenticeship is a great way to do that. I’m now working in global engineering, involved in a community of engineers all over the world, which is an amazing opportunity.”
Iona McGhie
Kelly Fraser, packaging and automation manager at Diageo, completed the Engineering Design and Manufacture Graduate Apprentice programme a few years ago.
She said: “The Graduate Apprenticeships are bringing their learnings back into the workplace. Completing the GA programme has helped me personally in my career progression through the professional development it has provided.”
Kelly now actively mentors the current Diageo Graduate Apprentices within the Diageo Global Engineering team to do the same.
And you can read the thoughts of Heriot-Watt’s Prof Gillian Murray on how GA work-based training can address skills shortages here.
Prefer to listen to two Graduate Apprentices sharing their experiences of working and studying for a degree at the same time?
This is a Q&A session with Fiona Campbell, Business Development Manager for Robert Gordon University discussing Graduate Apprenticeships with Matt Thomson from Gordon & McPhail and Lee Forsyth of Aberdeen Football Club.
They give an insight into why they chose to study this way, how they are balancing work and study and what they are getting out of it as both a student and an employee.
And finally, Paul Kerr was a Graduate Apprentice at McDonalds and Glasgow Caledonian University who joined the Business Management graduate apprenticeship programme. He considers one of the most notable benefits of his learning journey to be his newfound understanding of the inner workings of his workplace. Read more here.
In summary…
When you take on a Graduate Apprentice:
you can hire someone new or upskill an existing employee
you'll employ the apprentice
they learn on the job, studying at a Scottish university
they do the apprenticeship that suits your business needs
The sector faces a variety of skills challenges, including in STEM-related areas such as food science & technology and engineering. There’s stiff competition from other industries which can make staff retention a problem. We're also seeing how digitalisation and automation are changing the type of skills needed by Scotland's food and drink industry.
While companies may need to look at upskilling or reskilling existing employees to fill critical skills gaps, with so many new recruits needed over the coming years, we also need to attract new talent. This creates a talent pipeline for the future and can introduce new ideas and fresh thinking into your business.
Further information
Interested and want to find out more?
Visit the apprenticeship.scot GA page
Read through this guidance to help you recruit and employ a Graduate Apprentice
There is also a guide for employers about SAAS funding for Graduate Apprenticeships.
And you can search for learning providers in your area here