Parents vote for Apprenticeships
Many students will be getting twitchy as we approach the publication of GCSE, BTech and A level results this August. Meanwhile, parents will be wondering how best to advise their children on the next pathway to take.
Nearly half of parents would prefer their child studies an apprenticeship rather than attend university, according to a recent study.
According to research done by the Policy Institute at King’s College, London, a total of 48 per cent said they would opt for an apprenticeship if they had to choose, while 40 percent said university would be preferable.
When asked if they found university to be worth the time and money, 31% said no, which is an increase of 18% on 2018. (However, around half of parents of children aged 11 to 17 say it is important their child goes to university – virtually the same as 10 years ago. )
When questioned on whether the respondents felt opportunities for young people to go to university or study an apprenticeship should be increased or decreased, four in 10 say opportunities for young people to go to university should be increased, but almost double that – three-quarters – think opportunities for apprenticeships should be increased.
53% of parents felt that doing a vocational qualification, including apprenticeships, is better for helping young people adjust to worklife.
The rising debt of graduates appeared to be the major concern for parents, with opinions split over whether there should be different tuition fees for different courses.
Bobby Duffy, professor of public policy and director of the Policy Institute at King’s College, said a “key message” from the research was while universities are highly valued, they are not enough to meet all needs, with the public clearly in favour of more vocational education and apprenticeships.
You can read the detailed results of the study here.
Survey details: Fieldwork was conducted via Focaldata’s in-house platform, with API integration to an online panel network. Data collection took place over two fieldwork periods: 1–9 May (2,683 respondents) and 6–10 June (1,049 respondents, plus a booster sample of 369 parents of children aged 11 to 17 who feature in certain specific questions). Respondents were from a nationally representative group of those aged 16+ in the UK, with data weighted by age, gender, region, ethnicity and education status.
