Ministers have been urged to get a grip on access to degree-level apprenticeships after new research found the ‘middle-class grab’ on the courses is getting worse.
Social mobility charity the Sutton Trust released a report today that showed only five per cent of those starting a degree apprenticeship in 2020/21 were from lower income areas, compared with 6.7 per cent of those going to university.
Young apprentices from deprived areas made up six per cent of degree-level apprentices in 2018/19.
Sutton Trust said its research suggests that these apprenticeships are, in fact, not a more accessible pathway than the university route for those from low-income backgrounds, rhetoric that the government often pushes.
The charity called for measures to rebalance apprenticeships back towards disadvantaged young people after seeing soaring numbers of higher-level apprenticeships for older people since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017.
