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Degree Apprenticeships

A Degree Apprenticeship is a great way to train your employees to a graduate or Master's level whilst they’re working.

They gain university education and experience, whilst training on-the-job. 

You increase your productivity and performance by attracting and developing the very best talent.

Degree Apprenticeships are the Government's flagship skills programme, allowing employers to attract new staff, develop existing staff and improve staff retention. 

Our Degree Apprenticeships are funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Benefit your business

Our training opportunities are designed to meet the specific needs of your business.

Offering a Degree Apprenticeship will:

  • attract new, motivated, high-quality employees
  • improve retention rates
  • develop your team to undergraduate or postgraduate degree level
  • improve productivity
  • help future-proof your organisation
  • fill higher-level skills gaps
  • expand your recruitment pool
Two students talking

Get in touch

We’d love to talk to your business about our range of Degree Apprenticeships and how we can work in partnership to better your workforce.

We can also arrange to visit you at your organisation to discuss your needs and meet your team.

Our Apprenticeships

With more than 50 years teaching excellence the University of Bradford engages with hundreds of businesses each year. As part of our Degree Apprenticeships, we have established relationships with many organisations, including Morrisons and the NHS.

University of Bradford degree apprenticeships are designed with employers to meet the needs of industry, and can be taught in blocks or as flexible learning.

Your employees can join an existing Degree Apprenticeship course we offer. We also offer distance learning with some of our programmes, allowing greater flexibility for study.

We can provide a course, designed specifically for your company, for a cohort of employees to undertake at the same time.

If you are looking for a bespoke Degree Apprenticeship, you can contact us to learn how we can work with you.

Funding and incentives

Levy funded

If you’re a levy-paying employer (if you have more than a £3million pay bill) your organisation will already pay 0.5% tax of your wage bill, each year which can then only be spent on approved apprenticeships.

Your levy payments roll over from month to month. If not spent in 24 months the levy will expire and your money will be lost.

You will pay for training from your levy through the Digital Apprenticeship Service, which is an online service that allows employers to choose and pay for apprenticeship training more easily.

Non Levy funded - Co-investment

If your organisation is not required to pay the levy, a new ‘co-investment’ rate is available. Co-investment is when employers and Government share the cost of training and assessing an apprentice.

If your organisation’s total wage bill is below the £3million threshold, the Government will fund up to 95% of apprenticeship course fees, up to the relevant funding cap. For employers with less than 50 employees, you receive 100% funding for apprentices who are under the age of 19 when they start their course.

We have partnered with the University of Bradford to create a unique, tailor-made programme that’s designed to unlock young people’s potential. It means they can work, earn and learn while studying towards a degree and preparing for a management career.

Emma Cooksley, People Manager - Early Careers, Morrisons

Approach to Sub-Contracting for Apprenticeships

The University of Bradford is a provider of Higher and Degree Level apprenticeships. The University is committed to providing a high-quality learning experience for all its apprentices, and to meeting the needs of the businesses.

This University plans and approves apprenticeship programmes with the intention of delivering all parts of the programme itself. The University will only subcontract delivery of any part of an apprenticeship to an employer to facilitate placement learning elements of the curriculum. As required, the University will also subcontract for the provision of Functional Skills qualifications in Maths and English.

The University will comply with ESFA funding rules when dealing with sub-contracting and management of apprenticeships.

In all these cases, the decision to subcontract will be discussed with the employer before entering into a subcontract arrangement and will be recorded in the legal contract for services with the employer.

Where any element of the programme is subcontracted to the employer or another provider, they must be either a Main or Supporting Provider on ESFA’s register of Apprentice Training Providers or a registered Employer Provider.

All subcontracted provision will be subject to the University’s Subcontracting Policy for ESFA Funded programmes which sets out how the University will monitor and quality assure subcontracted provision. The University will continue on an on-going basis to improve the quality of any subcontracted arrangements which is evidenced by:

  • pre-contract activity which assesses the capability, capacity and readiness of the subcontractor to deliver the proposed learning;
  • contract reviews which are undertaken on a regular basis, dependent on risk, which encompass the quality of provision delivered, learner progress, a new sub-contractor, teaching and learning and contract performance;
  • inclusion of subcontracted provision within the University’s annual quality assurance monitoring processes

Fees for subcontracting vary dependent upon the level of support required and provided to each subcontractor. These fees are reviewed regularly and are adjusted as appropriate. Specific fees associated with sub-contracts will be set out in sub-contracting contracts. The University will not charge a fee of more than 15% for the management of subcontractors. 

Complaints regarding our apprenticeship provision

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about our apprenticeship provision then please follow the University’s complaints procedure. If you are unhappy with the resolution from the University, you may then make a complaint to the Education and Skills Funding Agency:

ESFA complaints team
complaints.ESFA@education.gov.uk

Complaints team
Education and Skills Funding Agency
Cheylesmore House, Quinton Road
Coventry, CV1 2WT