Jacobs Supports New Industry-Designed Degree Apprenticeships

Innovative Skills Development Programmes in Nuclear and Other Industries in the UK

14 May 2015

Photo: Sarah Chadwick, Apprentice Design Engineer at Jacobs. Sarah is on a rotational scheme and spends 6 months in each engineering discipline

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:JEC) welcomes the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) plan to roll-out nine new industry designed Degree Apprenticeships – an innovative new model bringing together the best of higher and vocational education. Jacobs is working together with other leading employers, universities and colleges to design and develop the Nuclear Degree Apprenticeship. 

The new Degree Apprenticeship is a practical, vocational degree course which allows people to combine both the academic study from a traditional university degree and the practical experience and wider employment skills vital for career development. The new Degree Apprenticeship standards will allow apprentices to take degree level qualifications as part of their apprenticeships, providing an innovative alternative route to higher education level qualifications. It will also be suitable for school leavers as an alternative route to gaining a degree.

Jacobs Group Vice President Bob Duff stated, “We are working with a number of employers and universities to develop the new course. By co-designing the new qualification we can collectively ensure it is highly relevant and practical. Jacobs has thriving graduate, technician and apprenticeship programmes, and we see these new pathways as being critical to attracting tremendous future talent into our business.”

Apprentices will split their time between university study and the workplace and will be employed throughout – gaining a full bachelor’s or master’s degree without paying study fees. In this way they are able to earn an income and gain valuable on-the-job experience in their chosen profession.

Alongside the new Nuclear Degree Apprenticeships, Jacobs is also helping to develop new apprenticeship standards or ‘trailblazers’ as part of BIS’ plans to improve the quality of

apprenticeships; including those for Nuclear Health Physics Monitor and Nuclear Welding Inspection Technician. Working across a number of diverse sectors, Jacobs is also able to provide design advice for other standards, and recently helped design the apprenticeship standard for a Railway Engineering Design Technician, and the Engineering Design & Draughting standard.

In 2013, Jacobs entered the Employer Ownership of Skills (EOS) pilot to support the growth of the company’s apprenticeships. This pilot enabled Jacobs to develop the new Level 3 apprenticeship pathway in Construction and Completions Control.

Jacobs employs some of the UK’s most experienced technical professional services practitioners; having grown to over 9,000 people at 35 locations across the UK; and has more than 500 graduates, 70+ technicians, and 200+ apprentices currently training in the UK. For more information about these opportunities with Jacobs visit our website.