Which is the best route into engineering?
TRAINING & RECRUITMENT ACADEMIA VS. APPRENTICESHIPS
QUALITY MANAGEMENT LTD
Which is the best route into engineering?
Lorren Ward, talent & resourcing project manager at Quality Management Ltd, explores whether apprenticeships or degrees offer the best route into engineering, and explains why employers should consider both pathways to build the workforce of the future.
For decades, two major routes have shaped the UK’ s engineering workforce. Both can lead to fulfilling, highly skilled careers. Yet, as the UK faces an increasingly widening engineering skills gap, the debate continues over which route, via academia or apprenticeships, best prepares candidates for entering the industry.
The Royal Academy of Engineering expects that growth in clean energy, defence, digital technology and housebuilding could create 834,000 additional jobs over the next five years, with one in four UK job adverts now spanning engineering. However, employers are struggling to find the skills they need. The IET’ s 2025 UK Engineering and Technology Skills Survey found that 76 % of engineering employers struggle to recruit for certain skills, while around one in three believe the current engineering and technology workforce is not fit for purpose.
environments, customer requirements, safety protocols, documentation, process discipline and the consequences of error right from the outset.
Onsite experience gives apprentices an early appreciation of the impacts of engineering decisions on variables like cost, lead time and quality. Engineers with practical experience will usually be more comfortable diagnosing issues under pressure, working with operators and suppliers, interpreting data and applying corrective measures where needed.
However, experience can sometimes be narrow. An apprentice’ s development is often shaped by the employer. Where a business has strong training systems and can offer cross-functional exposure, apprentices can develop rapidly. Where that support is weaker, there is a risk that learning becomes overly specific.
The value of academia: building a technical foundation
Undergraduate degrees bring technical depth and the time to develop a strong theoretical foundation. This is particularly important in advanced engineering environments where products and systems are becoming increasingly complex. Degrees are especially valuable for roles involving research and development, product design, software development and advanced manufacturing, as well as emerging fields such as battery systems and electrification.
So, with such a severe skills and talent gap, does UK industry have the luxury of favouring one talent pipeline over another?
The value of apprenticeships: learning by doing
The greatest strength of an apprenticeship is hands-on experience. With workplace exposure, apprentices learn to understand production
124 PECM Issue 82