Learning to work whilst working to learn: Is the degree apprenticeship a route for me?

Being a degree apprenticeship student is a demanding experience. Not only are they studying for a degree full time, but they are working full time (with a day a week of study leave) as well. We are often asked by prospective students: how do they do it, and what is it like?

To answer these questions, we interviewed alumni apprentices who have completed the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) through The Open University. What we found is that their journeys to success often started out by weighing careful choices, including evaluating time commitments, and then in managing upsides and downsides along the way. In embracing such choices apprentices cultivate their agency as active learners on their way to a qualification, rather than passive recipients of organisational training (see Archer, 2000). We also found apprentices saw advantages in: i) being paid to study, ii) having work time to study, iii) integrating work with study; and iv) being supported to study.

Being paid to study

One significant benefit to being a degree apprenticeship student is that you are paid to study. Degree apprenticeships are organised through the apprentice’s place of work, rather than by the learner directly. ‘An apprentice’ becomes their job role within their workplace. The degree element of the apprenticeship is then funded in most cases through the apprenticeship levy: a financial win-win for both the apprentice and their organisation.

While many apprentices acknowledged that not personally having to pay for the degree was a significant attraction in choosing the apprenticeship route, they had also thought through the caveats. Some felt this option came with additional obligations, not least that they were tied to their organisation until completion. The funding could be seen as a double-edged sword. Though they all cited the benefit of not having to pay for the qualification themselves, some were very aware of the ‘significant money’ being invested in them adding to the pressure to complete. Having to withdraw would mean not only having to admit defeat to themselves, but also to others within their organisation. On the flip side, achieving the apprenticeship enabled them to gain extra recognition at work.

Having work time to study

Rules and regulations stipulate a day of the working week should be allocated to studying for a degree apprenticeship. In traditional brick universities that would probably be the time that they visit campus. With the tutor supported online delivery model of The Open University however, the apprentice can take that time more flexibly to fit their study around their work and family commitments.

Some of the apprentices interviewed had agreed to take their study time on a designated day of the week each week, whilst others took it in smaller chunks of time, depending upon their personal need, and that of the organisation they worked for. Apprentices became skilled at recognising busy periods and times in their sector, and they had worked on their negotiation skills to balance their own and their organisation’s needs in this respect.

Integrating work with study

Degree apprenticeship students not only use their study for their working role, but they also use their working role as a fundamental element of their study. Although applying academic ideas to one’s own professional context brings additional complexity and associated workload to one’s studies (Myers, Bloomfield and Reid, 2023), there are significant benefits in applicability and personal credibility to be gained from this symbiosis. Whereas traditional business and management degrees often rely on case studies to breathe real-life events into theoretical knowledge, within degree apprenticeships the learner and their workplace become the case study that learning is based upon.

Integrating work and study stacks benefits via a) enhancing understanding through real life application; b) turning knowledge into skills to make apprentices more productive at work; and c) enabling colleagues to benefit as well.

Doing their degrees this way suffused the apprentices with confidence. 

One younger student who deliberately chose what he saw as the ‘tougher’ option of managing job and study together, rather than being ‘mollycoddled’ within the traditional university route, did so because he felt combining work and learning would enable him to get invaluable life experience and ‘get ahead of his friends’ on the career ladder.

Equally, the road to confidence came through strongly in the learning stories of those established in a role before starting an apprenticeship, fitting the ideal development journey set out by Hughes and Saieva (2019). ‘I didn’t do particularly well at school’ commented one of the learners, but being able to do a degree later in life through work really ‘suited my needs’. Seeing the relevance of what he was learning to his work activated his ‘sponge mode’, as he could relate the learning much better. He talked about how doing the apprenticeship enabled him to be both a role model for his teenage daughter and give advice to others in his organisation.

Being supported to study

Traditional degree study is designed as an individualised learning journey which can sometimes be lonely. On degree apprenticeships however, learning with, and getting support from, the organisation is in-built into the experience. Part of the deal with a degree apprenticeship is that there is a ‘tripartite relationship’ of support from both a designated university tutor and continual support from the apprentice’s line manager.

Not only is the apprentice’s line manager an integral part of the learning design, but other colleagues are also drawn in to provide expertise and support, which can be seen as another element of perceived value in the qualification (Horáčková et al, 2024). Building closer relationships with line managers and making connections to senior staff are further potential benefits – and a ‘cherry on the cake’ - as one former apprentice commented.

Is the degree apprenticeship a route for me?

As well as getting a degree, going down the apprenticeship route enables students to get recognised professional status. For our ‘Chartered Managers’ that was an additional motivator.

Whilst sometimes being a bit of a rollercoaster ride emotionally, getting the apprenticeship offered an almost guaranteed route to career progression. One apprentice expressed pride in being told explicitly ‘You’ve done it so we will promote you. That’s why we are promoting you’.

What our interviewees told us was that being successful required determination; effective time management; and an ability to make use of the additional ‘off-the-job’ time and mentoring support available to them. The benefits of taking this route then outweighed the negatives.

At the end of the day, what we found was that though the apprenticeship route is ‘tough, very tough’, and far from the easy option, all our participants thought it was worth it in the end. As one alum noted ‘it’s done me a massive, massive amount of benefit’.

Dr Sarah Bloomfield 

Dr Sarah Bloomfield is a Lecturer in work-based learning in the Department of People and Organisations at The Open University. Sarah works across management degree apprenticeship programs and her research and practice focus on how individual and collective managerial effectiveness can be improved in the workplace, recognising that each work situation is unique.

Kulvinder Buray 

Kulvinder is a Lecturer and Assistant Head of Student Experience, Apprenticeships at The Open University Business School in the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) and has oversight of the Student Experience Managers on the FBL Apprenticeship programmes. Her research interests centre on engagement with employers and how collaboration with employers can improve student experience and retention. 

Dr Fran Myers

Dr Fran Myers is a Lecturer in Management in the Department for People and Organisations at The Open University Business School. Her research interests include organisational and political history-making and storytelling and identity in the workplace (particularly digital identity work) alongside personal and social narratives of people at work.

Mary Shek

Mary is a Practice Tutor for the Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeships Programme at The Open University Business School. She also teaches on a Health and Wellbeing Module in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Languages. Mary’s research interests like in the area of Social Justice. She is interested in the subject of power, identity and voices of those who are oppressed.