Less than a quarter of apprentices say teachers and education professionals advised them on vocational route into work.
More than three quarters of young people say going on an apprenticeship improved their skills and career prospects while four in five would recommend them to others, according to new research from YMCA.
In fact, almost four in five young people (79 per cent) say they were offered a job at the end of their apprenticeship while more than three quarters say it helped to improve their responsibilities (77 per cent), satisfaction (78 per cent) and salary (81 per cent) when in the workplace.
Do apprenticeships help?
Young people also spoke of the difficulties they had covering basic living costs while on the schemes as well as coping with work-study balance. YMCA found that many had no choice but to study at home and on weekends during their apprenticeship due to a lack of time in core working hours.
‘Young people need better careers advice in schools to open up further options to them, a more realistic work-study balance that protects them from exploitation and improved support from employers to help them afford basic living costs. By putting these provisions in place, more young people will rightfully see apprenticeships as the progressive option our research has proven them to be.’
Arron, 21, from Nottingham, is currently doing an apprenticeship in rail infrastructure. He says, ‘A lot of young people aren’t bothered about apprenticeships; they believe that apprenticeships are useless. [But] I have done the apprenticeship and I went to college and, in my opinion, you benefit and learn a lot more from an apprenticeship.
More than 400 young people with experience of apprenticeships aged 16 to 26 years old and from across England and Wales fed into Work in Progress. Other findings include:
* Almost two thirds of young people (63 per cent) were left to search the internet to find out about apprenticeships.
* More than a third of young people (34 per cent) feel more could be done to improve the amount of support and advice available prior to undertaking an apprenticeship.
* A third of former apprentices (34 per cent) said they would have liked to have spent more time studying while almost a quarter (24 per cent) said they found it difficult to balance study and work elements of their apprenticeships.
* More than one third of young people (35 per cent) say the salary they received while on an apprenticeship was enough to cover basic living costs. Read more
