Keegan hails degree-level apprenticeship for college students in search of area sector jobs
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tudents seeking to work within the UK’s rising area sector will have the ability to acquire a degree-level business qualification with out incurring tuition charges, the Education Secretary has introduced.
The new Space Systems Engineer diploma apprenticeship will give individuals alternatives to work for world aerospace firms, area businesses and main analysis and expertise establishments, the Department for Education (DfE) stated.
The curriculum, to be launched in 2024, was developed with the University of Leicester following enter from main companies together with Airbus, and can be delivered on the metropolis’s Space Park.
Applications for the Level 6 Space Systems programme will open in September this yr, with profitable candidates starting their coaching at Airbus in September 2024.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, who visited the Space Park on Thursday, stated: “It is a brilliant opportunity for young people to be at the forefront of the UK’s world-class space industry, earning money while they get a degree and unparalleled skills training.
“We will ensure the industry can access the talent it needs to continue to grow the economy and make history.
“I think it’s going to be hugely popular, and I look forward to seeing many more people get the opportunity to work in this fascinating industry via a degree apprenticeship.
“I think they’re a fantastic option, not just for young people who want to get that route into the same careers as opposed to just going via the university route, but also for older people, perhaps if they missed out but they do need to earn as well.
“It’s a fantastic route into any career and we now have degree apprenticeships in 140 different careers and we have 667 different apprenticeship standards, so you can literally be almost anything now via an apprenticeship.”
The new diploma apprenticeship follows the approval in 2020 of a Level 4 Space Engineering Technician apprenticeship, which was designed to assist younger individuals acquire the technical abilities wanted to start out a profession in area.
Apprentices on the brand new scheme can be concerned in creating “complex, high-value space hardware and ground support equipment”, the DfE stated and can spend round 20% of their time within the classroom and the remainder working.
The announcement comes after the UK launched its first National Space Strategy in 2021.
The plan goals to develop the sector – which as of 2021 was price greater than £16.4 billion per yr and employed greater than 45,000 individuals – and enhance the flexibility to “achieve the UK’s civil and defence ambitions in space”.
Professor Sarah Davies, head of the College of Science and Engineering on the University of Leicester, stated: “Space is going to be a huge industry, it’s going to be (a) hundreds of billions of dollars industry.
“It’s growing at a significant rate and the UK is leading in that.
“In Leicestershire alone, there are 40 companies that are involved in space.
“It requires everything from computer scientists, to engineers, software engineers, a whole range of disciplines that can be brought into the space arena to develop new ideas and to develop new technologies.”
Degree-level apprenticeships had been launched within the 2014-15 tutorial yr, with 188,000 apprentices since beginning {qualifications} in sectors together with nursing, science and engineering.
Apprentices earn a median wage of over £34,000 after finishing their qualification at a college, with out incurring debt from tuition charges.
Mrs Keegan is the one diploma apprentice within the House of Commons and signed off the primary area engineering apprenticeship when she was apprenticeships minister.
The Government has requested the Office for Students – a DfE physique that regulates the upper training sector – to speculate as much as £40 million over the subsequent two years to assist training suppliers provide extra diploma apprenticeships.
Students seeking to full such a programme may even have the ability to see diploma apprenticeship alternatives on the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) utility system.
They’re paying for college and work expertise in engineering. Work expertise is like gold mud,
During her go to, Mrs Keegan spoke to present diploma apprentices working with Airbus and was proven a variety of latest applied sciences, one thing she described as “fascinating”.
Aaron Vidal, 21, is finishing the Embedded Systems Design and Development diploma apprenticeship and stated the qualification gave college students a “big leg up” of their seek for a job.
He stated: “They’re paying for university and work experience in engineering.
“Work experience is like gold dust, so having four years of work experience and a degree when leaving university, people in the same place as me will have a degree but they’ll have a bunch of student debt and one year of work experience, so it gives you a big leg up in the jobs marketplace.”