The number of universities awarding degree apprenticeships is set to surge, according to University Vocational Awards Council (Uvac) chief executive Adrian Anderson.

Speaking at the second City and Guilds Franklin Debate, which mark 140 years of skills education, Anderson said that from the conversations he has had with about 70 universities that Uvac represented, he believed one in 10 of the degrees awarded could be linked to an apprenticeship within the next three years.

He also said degree apprenticeships could help solve the issue of parity of esteem between academic and technical education. “I think the government has stumbled across the solution,” he said. ”[Degree apprenticeships are] something for people to progress towards and it is something for people from every background to aspire towards.”

‘Right for anyone’

In a discussion entitled “Skills reform - over to you, how are we going to make it work?”, Anderson was joined on the panel by Phil Crompton, headmaster of Trent Academies Group; Sally Dicketts, chief executive of Activate Learning; Sue Husband, director of the National Apprenticeship Service; and Martyn Price, chair of the Cross-industry Construction Apprenticeship Task Force. The panel was chaired by Baroness Sue Garden, the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for higher education, further education and skills.

Husband said it was her ambition to make apprenticeships and T levels a gold-standard route in education alongside academic routes. “T levels are not for young people who are not able to do A levels,” she said. “They are a different path that is right for anyone.”

The final debate in the series will be held next month at City University.

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