Find Apprenticeships locally

There are plenty of websites offering a fast route to finding an Apprenticeship and here's one more to add to the growing list: CareerMap is quick and simple to use. You enter your postcode and it generates a map showing the locations of the nearest Apprenticeship opportunities, colour-coded by type. By clicking on each icon, you can get more details of the Apprenticeship with a quick link to making an application. You'll need an up to date CV which you can attach electronically.

Go Dutch!

There are 300 degree courses taught in English in the Netherlands. They are taught at Research Universities (RU) or Universities of Applied Science (UAS). RU cover more traditional academic areas and take three years, while UAS cover more vocational areas and usually take four years, including an internship. There are also university colleges, which are small campus institutions linked to an RU who and only offer Liberal Arts and Sciences. Most Dutch universities do not offer accommodation, except for university colleges. The tuition cost is around £1500 and EU students can apply for a government loan. Useful websites include: studyinholland.nl; studyfinder.nl; duo.nl and grantfinder.nl.

Graduate vs. Apprenticeship earnings

A study by the ‘Million Jobs Campaign’ has looked into the earnings of graduates and compared them to Apprentices. It found that 39% of graduates have lifetime earnings below that of the average Higher Level Apprentice, rising to 46% for graduates from post 1992 universities. For some degrees, such as Media Studies, the figure was over 70%. However, a poll of 500 school leavers commissioned for the study found that only 6% said they were planning to do an Apprenticeship and more than half said they had no interest in Apprenticeships. The study was commissioned by Pera Training, a large provider of manufacturing Apprenticeships.  [ source: GTAssociates ]

Graduate jobs on the increase

The number of graduate vacancies is predicted to rise by 11.9% this year, according to a survey of 200 employers by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). They also found that many companies plan to offer more school leaver jobs, up from 54.7% in 2013 to 72.7%. Charlie Ball, head of HE intelligence at Prospects, said, “This year’s graduates can be confident that there are more opportunities available and that they can expect better job prospects than the previous cohort as the economy strengthens. However, they should remember that they will, as always, need to put the effort into finding these positions, make considered applications and seek careers advice from their university”.

Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive of the AGR, said that “tensions persist” in the graduate jobs market, as 1,400 additional jobs could have been offered last year, if employers had found enough candidates with “the right mix of skills”. The AGR survey found that 44.8% of employers reported unfilled vacancies in 2013/2014, with the largest proportion occurring in the IT and telecoms sector, where 11.8% of graduate vacancies remained unfilled. Some employers cited lack of technical and professional skills as the key reasons for the unfilled positions, others point to a rising number of graduates backing out of offers. Mr Isherwood said: "Difficulties in attracting the right talent with the right mix of skills in the right location are on the increase, not since 2008 has the problem been so pronounced."  [ source GTAssociates ]

Are you Born to Build?

Born to build is an industry sponsored resource promoting careers in the construction sector with links through to the job profiles on the National Careers Service website.You can answer their 'Quirky Questions', read about the top 10 'Construction Myths' and also investigate training and employment opportunities by region. They are also organising an Open Doors Weekend, on 6 & 7 March 2015, where there are opportunities to visit a working construction site.