The importance of gaining meaningful engagement from both participants and employers in order to maximise the benefits of undertaking a degree apprenticeship in the UK

This development paper aims to explore the perspectives of participants following degree apprenticeships (DA) and their opinions relating to the influence of their employers on this experience. Degree apprenticeships combine university study and work-based learning to enable apprentices to gain a full bachelor’s or master’s degree whilst in full-time employment. Initial forecasts indicated a target of 3 million apprenticeships would be generated under the UK government’s workplace levy (imposed on all UK organisations with a wage bill of more than £3 million) by 2020 (Woolcock 2018). Of these, one million are expected to be degree apprenticeships (Chartered Management Institute 2018). Preliminary research highlights the experiences of degree apprenticeship participants in terms of the development of their professional identity. The findings indicated that participants’ sense of professional identity developed positively through the work-based learning programme. However, feelings of professional frustration resulting from organisational issues such as lack of opportunity and support had a disproportionately negative impact on the participants sense of professional identity. These findings informed the development of the model below that can be used by academics, practitioners, employers and policy makers to inform good practice in the development and delivery of DA