Where to find apprenticeships, bursaries and training schemes

by lovemoney staff on 11 March 2013  |  10 comments
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An apprenticeship can give you a new skill and you'll get paid while you do it.

Apprentices will create an extra £3.4 billion for the economy by 2022, according to a new report.

This works out as a boost of £214 a week for each company with an apprentice, the report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) estimates.

The news comes at the start of National Apprenticeship Week, and as several major companies, including Barclays announce new apprenticeship schemes.

UK apprenticeships

In such tough economic times, apprenticeships are being celebrated as a way to get people into jobs and to boost the overall economy.

The number of people taking part in apprenticeships in all sectors is expected to shoot up by 220,000 by 2021/22. This increase will boost productivity levels at UK companies which will in turn lead to higher profits and wages, lower prices and better products.

How much money per week an apprentice will create for a company varies by sector. In engineering and manufacturing there will be an extra £414 a week, while in construction and planning it’s slightly lower at £401 and for business, administration & legal it’s £268.

How to become an apprentice

Becoming an apprentice is a good way to learn a new skill and you’ll be paid for it. The average wage per week is £170 and a wide range of companies offer them.

A good place to start is searching for vacancies on the apprenticeships website. You can set up a home page listing your skills, then search for suitable openings and apply.

There is a variety of apprenticeships, bursaries and training schemes available to help you secure a job. These cover lots of sectors, such as arts, media and publishing, and health, public services and care.

Here are a few well-known schemes and a few you might not have thought of.

Nursing bursaries

If you’re interested in a career with the NHS and are accepted onto an approved nursing course, you could have your tuition fees paid in full, receive a £1,000 grant for each year of the course as well as an opportunity to apply for a means-tested bursary worth up to £4,395 a year (or £5,460 for students in London).

A reduced rate loan can also be made available to help with costs while you study.

Teacher-training funding

Bursaries are available to some students and the amount given will vary depending on what type of course you're enrolled on and also which subject. Someone with a 2:1 studying on a physics, chemistry or maths course can expect to receive around £15,000 and this drops to £12,000 for those with a 2:2 grade.

To be in line for one you'll need a degree grade of at least a 2:2 and you can find our more on the education.gov.uk website.

Become a train driver

Get paid while you undergo practical and theoretical training for a job on the railways. The initial search for a company can be tough, but if you succeed you could earn around £18,000 as a trainee, rising to around £40,000 once you’re qualified.

You need certain attributes for the job, such as good eyesight and a long attention span, but you don’t need a university degree.

Fancy flying a plane?

For example, one projection estimates that European airlines will need to recruit 92,500 new pilots between now and 2030 to replace those due to retire. Even more dramatically, the UK will need to train 96,300 new engineers over just four years.

Work to preserve cultural heritage

The Heritage Lottery Fund injection £13.6 million into the Skills for the Future and Training Bursaries Programmes last year. These will offer 788 new paid training placements for people who want a career in heritage.

This includes highly skilled crafts and could be anything from blacksmithing and stone masonry to botanic gardening or book conservation, among many other types of job.

You can find projects on the Skills for the Future webpage.

How to fund your apprenticeship

Some, or all, of the cost of training will be covered by the National Apprenticeship Service. For 16- to 18-year-olds all the fees are covered and this falls to 50% for 19- to 24-year-olds. For those aged over 25 there will still be some contributions, but this depends on the apprenticeship scheme.

You can also get your hands on awards, special loans, grants and bursaries from all kinds of specialist groups and societies.

For example, the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust awards up to £15,000 to craftsmen and women of all ages to study or train and help further their careers.

To find out more about some of these opportunities look at the bursary and scholarship information on The Complete University Guide website.

This is a classic Lovemoney article that has been updated.

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