Articles
Written from four years inside a degree apprenticeship, not from a prospectus.
Deciding and applying
Degree apprenticeship vs university: an honest comparison after doing both
What you actually gain, what you actually lose, and who each route genuinely suits — from someone who did four years of both at once.
What a degree apprenticeship assessment centre is actually like
The stages, what assessors mark in group exercises, the competency questions that always come up, and being visibly 17 in a room of graduates.
How to answer “why an apprenticeship and not university?”
Answer framings that work, the ones that fall flat, and what the question is really testing.
The degree apprenticeship application timeline, month by month
September applications to a September start: when things open, when the long silences happen, and when you need housing sorted.
How to actually find degree apprenticeships worth applying to
Where the listings live, employer sites vs aggregators, why good ones close early, and building a shortlist beyond the famous four employers.
What the qualification is worth: understanding levels, standards and the degree
Level 6 demystified: who awards the degree, how it appears on your CV, and whether employers treat it as equivalent.
Before you start
Moving out at 18 for an apprenticeship: what nobody prepares you for
No halls, no freshers’ week, no warden — you are a tenant with a job, three months after school ends.
Finding housemates before day one: the group chat playbook
How cohorts self-organise before the start date, why the first group gets the good houses, and vetting people you’ve never met.
Renting your first house at 17 or 18: guarantors, deposits and the under-18 problem
Holding deposits, guarantors with no rental history, joint and several liability in plain English, and the legal snag if you’re not yet 18.
Viewing rentals in a city you’ve never lived in
Doing viewings in one day, handling letting agents, the checklist to run in every property, and researching neighbourhoods remotely.
What it actually costs to start: a first-three-months budget
Deposit, first rent, furnishing a room, the gap before the first payslip — a realistic total for starting a degree apprenticeship.
Your contract: confidentiality, compliance and the rules that surprise people
Personal account dealing, gifts, social media policy — the rules regulated employers apply and why they matter from day one.