UVAC has launched its new 2025 series of reports and research papers with the first publication, Higher and Degree Apprenticeships as Professional Entry and Progression Routes, a research paper by Dr. Stan Lester.
Higher Apprenticeships at level 4 and above were introduced in England and Wales in 2008, and formal Degree Apprenticeships at levels 6 and 7 in 2015. These higher-level apprenticeships have since become a significant route to qualifying in many professions and an ancillary route in others.
This paper lays out a small-scale qualitative study that examines how apprenticeships are used, and how well they are working, in a cross-section of professions representing different sectors, approaches to qualifying and modes of regulation.
About the author:
Dr Stan Lester is an associate with UVAC. He has worked since 1993 as a consultant, researcher and systems developer in professional and work-related education and development. His work spans four principal areas: professionalisation and self-regulation, professional competence, work-based higher education, and more recently digital learning. He has been described as a leading expert on professional competence as well as one of the world’s most important thought-leaders and most cited authors on university-level work-based learning.
