Apprenticeship vs University: What to choose?

When I was growing up, I was always told that I need to study well in school, then to go to a good university and study something that would secure me a good job afterwards. I was born in the 90s, so that was a very common way of thinking back then. And, to be honest, it probably was the only way for my generation and in my country. But is it still now?

I am originally from Estonia and I came to UK when I was 18, as many others, to study. One of the reasons for going abroad to study, was that the choice of professions that I could study in Estonia was quite limited back then. I wanted to do events management and that was unheard of profession in Estonia, so I came to UK.

As in Estonia there was nothing even similar to apprenticeship, I didn't even know then that such thing existed, and naturally, I wasn't looking into this option when choosing what to study and where. The only two options I was aware of were college or Uni and college was already not an option. Also, apprenticeship schemes weren't very popular at the time, so unless you knew about their existence, you wouldn't know where to look. There weren't also many apprenticeship standards available in comparison to the choice you have now.

And so I went to uni and did my degree. Do I regret it? Probably not. Would have I been able to change my career without it? Probably yes. Would have I done it if I was straight out of school and had a choice between university and apprenticeship? Probably not, and I will try to explain why.

My point of view is going to be based on personal experience and it will look from the employability and employer perspective.The world of work has changed dramatically in the last 10 years and it is constantly changing still. What we used to study and how we used to study 10 years ago is much less relevant or no longer relevant at all. Having a degree is no longer a must, we are no longer looking for jobs for life, but rather doing something we enjoy and that gives us fulfillment. With ever changing world of work, the skills, and experiences employers are looking for also change.

Before you could have gone to university, got a degree in the field you wanted to work in and got a job. What is the biggest obstacle the new grads are faced with now? No work experience. Most of the employers will now look at the experience first, and at the education after, if at all. Working across different industries and sectors from small start ups to large organisations, every time I or any other hiring manager looks at the CV, we don't look at the education - what we are interested in is experience. What have you done to date, that you can show me and persuade me to hire you?

There are two main issues that we face when hiring someone with the degree, but no work experience. First one is that the degree young people have is not relevant to the job they are applying for. Let's say they have studied history or geography in the university and now they are applying for Digital marketing executive position. If digital marketing is their passion and they can showcase some work that they have done on the side, or projects that they have worked on as a hobby, it is one thing. But when there is none of that, how is what they have studied relevant to the job they are planning to do? The other point to stress is if they haven't studied for this specific field and haven't had any experience in this field also, what are the guarantees that they are going to stay in that position? Even though there are never guarantees that people will stay, if they know more or less the job they are going to do, the probability is still higher.

The second issue is that the knowledge the young person gets in the university is very much theoretical and, in most cases, differs from real world greatly. Let's take HR as an example. When we were hiring for our department, we looked at all the candidates with degrees and without. What we have found is when young people come out of the university and get their first job in HR, they think they know everything. And, of course, they know everything in theory and a lot of it, but what they don't know is how to apply this theory to practice. They also don't know how to provide not just text book HR advice, that in most cases is not applicable to the business, but more so, can be quite damaging and have serious legal implications. The worst part, however, is not that they don't know, but that they think they know and that they are right just because they have HR degree. Trying to change what they have learned in uni is extremely difficult and not always possible, so we would much rather hire someone with no higher education, but with real life experience.

Apprenticeships, on the other side, provide a great opportunity for young people to study and gain experience at the same time. If you ask me, this is the best possible way to learn - when you have the theory and you can put it in to practice in the real world. And the question of experience will never be a problem. When employers hire an apprentice, they usually don't have high expectations as to the young person's experience, but rather are looking for great attitude, willingness to learn and pro-activeness. And they are ready to put the time and effort to develop the person and train them for what they were hired to do.

Now, in no way I suggest that there is no need to go to uni. It very much depends on what is it that you want to do and, of course, I am not talking about the professions, for which degree is an absolute must - like doctors, psychologists, lawyers, scientists etc. But if you choose a profession, that you don't necessarily need a degree for, and you can start working and gaining experience straight after school through apprenticeship, I would definitely recommend you to take that route.

This is talking only from employability and employer perspective, but there are also other benefits like having no debt to pay back when you graduate. And, considering one year in uni now costs ￡9,000 on average, for three years of full time study you will be repaying ￡27,000 at the very minimum. Do you really want to start your life with the massive debt behind your shoulders?

There are also some disciplines, that require you to have a specific qualification regardless of whether you have a degree or not. For example, if working in finance or accounting, most companies will require you to have ACCA, CIMA or similar, depending on the role. Working in HR generally requires you to be CIPD qualified. In most cases your employer will sponsor you and pay for the qualifications.

Education is absolutely the best investment you can make, but why not rather invest in learning soft skills that you can take with you from company to company, to a new job role or promotion, the skills that will really help you in your career progression? Focus on people skills, communication, influence and negotiation - they will be your best investment.