Australia’s first formal degree apprenticeship exemplifies the value of work-based learning and the tremendous benefit to both learners and industry.
At a webinar last week exploring the development of the award-winning Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship in South Australia, panelists praised the contextual learning the program offers apprentices and the edge it gives employers.
Webinar host Caroline Smith, Executive Director of the Ai Group Centre for Education and Training (Ai Group CET), said: “The apprentice is applying daily what they learn at university, which helps to build understanding more quickly than just learning theory.
“Apprentices also benefit by learning from experts in the field.
“They get to build a resume showing years of relevant work experience, develop a network of colleagues and get paid while studying.
“Employers benefit as they can hire someone directly from school, giving them a head start over other organisations looking for second or third-year university students to take on as interns or looking to hire graduates.
“The employer gets to shape the learning of the student by providing their workplace’s context, and by the time those apprentices graduate, they have years of work experience under their belt.
“They know the organisation well; they know where they fit and where they might progress within the organisation.
“They're going to be far more productive than a recent graduate, because they've got that context and five years’ experience.”
The apprenticeship system in Australia has a long and proud tradition and has successfully trained many thousands of Australians across a range of industries over many years.
The Australian Industry Group has been a strong advocate for exploring ways to expand the apprenticeship model beyond the traditional trade area, to provide opportunities for work-based learning in new fields.
“The degree-level apprenticeship is one way the education and training system can respond to the pace and extent of change to the skills needed in our economy,” Dr Smith said.
“Increasingly, the skills needed extend across the traditional divide between the skills and hands-on experience developed traditionally through VET and the knowledge developed through higher education.”
Other successful models of higher and degree apprenticeships in Australia developed with the support of Ai Group include:
The Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship was the first degree apprenticeship in Australia to be formally declared an apprenticeship by a state government.
In February, the program won the Future Builder Award at Universities Australia's Shaping Australia Awards in Canberra, recognised for going above and beyond to equip students with the knowledge and skills to make a positive impact in the world.
To delve into the development and success of the program, Dr Smith welcomed webinar panelists:
The Ai Group CET has broad experience and expertise in developing and implementing higher and degree apprenticeships in the Australian context including:
“In all the programs so far, Ai Group has collaborated with employers and providers with the support of state or federal governments,” Dr Smith said.
“We've been really pleased to see the increasing levels of priority placed on the concept by governments across the country.
“New programs like this don't just happen; there is a lot of planning that goes into them.
“You need to identify and harness a demand from employers.
“You need to find a university willing and able to develop a program that suits a working apprentice as opposed to a full-time student. It might be engagement with a VET provider like TAFE or a private provider.
“You need to sort out wages and conditions and get state government approvals for apprenticeship or traineeship declarations.
“All of this takes time and commitment.”
“We had our first meeting with employers about this program back in 2022, aiming for a 2024 commencement,” BAE’s Georgette Elston said.
“Structured planning has been important, because employers and universities are both relatively unfamiliar with the concept in Australia.
“With the support of Ai Group, we got UniSA on board. They were a great partner with the right mindset from the outset.”
To get the Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship up and running, BAE established two working groups comprising stakeholders from the university, industry and Ai Group. One group focused on employment and the other on education.
“We’re now at the end of the first year, quite successfully,” Ms Elston said.
“Throughout the first year, we had an integrated project team that comprised Ai Group, ourselves and the university to troubleshoot on a regular basis and explore what was going well and what was needed to ensure we were all on track to support apprentices in the way we wanted to.”
BAE runs degree apprenticeships in 26 disciplines in the UK.
“These programs ensure we're shaping people with the right skills, mindset and business focus from year one,” Ms Elston said.
“They're a much more intensive way of developing young people into our business. There's a strong and growing place in our Australian business for them, as well.”
“While there are many barriers to this sort of program in Australia, including legislation, etc — if it was just a BAE program, we wouldn't be able to get the traction we need to reform the education system,” Ms Elston said.
“It was never going to be a single-company focus; involvement from many companies is vital.
“We’re fortunate Consunet came on board. They provide a different flavour from the big multinational that we are and the big company that fellow industry partner ASC is.
“Having the three of us together and the experiences we bring will go a long way to support policy changes into the future.”
The University of South Australia was approached to develop and deliver the bachelor program the apprentices would undertake.
“We’ve done a number of these sorts of joint programs with industry over the years,” Assoc Prof von Itzstein said.
“Working with companies creates great outcomes for our students.”
UniSA approached the partnership with flexibility to ensure success.
“We couldn’t expect a company to guarantee the students would learn a skill in an exact 13-week period,” Assoc Prof von Itzstein said.
“Being flexible was crucial.
“We also shared BAE’s concerns that the program should have a multi-company focus.
“We were keen to diversify the companies that would be involved.
“There were a lot of meetings to ensure the focus remained on the best outcome for the students, rather than an individual employer.
“This helps ensure we get good graduates out of the program.”
Early conversations with employers revealed expectations regarding roles.
“We thought UniSA would provide greater workplace teaching, but the feedback was: ‘No, you take care of the teaching, we’ll give them workplace experience,” Assoc Prof von Itzstein said.
“We had to change our mindset about what we thought the program would look like at that point in time, given UniSA was already an active supporter of workplace learning — where the students show their skillsets rather than learning a skillset.
“We also had to have strong conversations internally around timelines for students’ grades to be submitted.”
Noah, who is completing his apprenticeship at Consunet, started in the first intake of apprentices from last year and studies alongside non-apprentice students at UniSA.
“I applied to join the program because I understood the apprenticeship would give me on-the-job experience and allow me to apply my university learnings straight into the workplace,” he said.
“From what I can tell, the apprentices tend to come into class with a little more knowledge, intent to learn and willingness to harness those skills.”
Noah has already made a strong impression at Consunet.
“The talent pool from the selection process was top tier,” fellow webinar panelist and Noah’s manager, John Hudson, said.
“Everyone was amazing, and we were fortunate to have Noah come on board.
“His inclusion in the Consunet team has been nothing short of amazing. His motivation to learn and mature the process at Consunet has been a real benefit.
“It’s selling the apprentices short to say they didn't have any experience, because they bring a lot from high school these days. We add industry learning to that knowledge.
“This year, Noah is starting to help the new apprentices, so it’s becoming a cycle where our mentees are becoming mentors.”
The biggest challenge for Consunet was allocating apprentices to tasks, Mr Hudson said.
“We couldn’t immediately give Noah tasks, especially in the defence industry, so we brought together a brainstorming group to divide and conquer the coursework to align learning tasks with university courses — so, Noah might learn web development shortly before doing a web development course over the year.
“We also focus on personal development and soft skills to develop the apprentices as professionals, introducing them to meetings and the like.
“Towards the end of the year, we wanted to integrate Noah into an actual IPT (integrated product team) to give him experience in a business context.
“Every opportunity is a building block towards being more valuable at Consunet.”
To deal with diversity in marking, UniSA looked to the VET sector’s assessment of competencies rather than grading assessments.
“We give the students a portfolio of competencies, which we co-developed with industry when we built the program, so students have to demonstrate their mastery of skills,” Assoc Prof von Itzstein said.
UniSA provides pastoral care for students in the program.
“A lot of our students are teenagers going into a professional environment without a lot of experience in that realm,” Assoc Prof von Itzstein said.
“Every student has a mentor, and there are regular catch ups.”
Mentors are given practical training on how to best support the apprentices, to maximise everyone’s time and effort.
Retention from the first intake is excellent, with only one student having to leave the program for personal reasons.
“Industrial awards aren't set up to support professional apprenticeships, so we relied on Ai Group to help us determine which award was appropriate for this program,” Ms Elston said.
“Ai Group’s recommendations were accepted by all employers. We’re all comfortable we’re paying above award.
“Regarding uni fees, I would say government policy settings need to be addressed in terms of uni fees being considered a fringe benefit versus TAFE fees being tax deductible.
“Employer engagement with university education will be an important component of our economic development going forward.
“Having said that, in all the programs we've been involved in so far, participating companies have all paid full university fees.”
Assoc Prof von Itzstein says government support is crucial to expand the offering of degree apprenticeships.
“The government needs to normalise this type of program, so that it fits into existing systems,” he said.
“We need more employers and a diversity of employers to come in and say: ‘We'll give it a go.’
“Programs such as this aren’t perfect for every discipline; we need to be strategic.
“People are crying out for experienced project managers, so that would be the next one, I would think.”
Ms Elston agrees.
“Project management will be our next focus,” she said.
“We'll be working with the new Adelaide University on that one, and we welcome other companies to join us in the design.”
Assoc Prof von Itzstein added: “Government also needs to offer equivalent levels of financial support to employers.
“That will come when volume and demand increase.”
Ms Elston encouraged other companies to support such programs.
“It’s not a risk,” she said.
“We've demonstrated through one year of this program that our apprentices have been productively coding on-profit programs and demonstrating significant time savings through that early coding work, which for us was low risk.
“We're very proud of the outcomes that the first-year apprentices received in terms of their university grades.
“There's no shortage of young people who want to be involved.
“It's a matter for employers to get on board and prove to government that this is a model that we're very interested in pursuing, and it's delivering benefit right from the first year.”
Mr Hudson added: “These kinds of programs are the future of the way we train.
"It's been hugely beneficial for Consunet, so we'll keep doing it.
“I strongly encourage other employers to get on board. Don't worry about not knowing how to coordinate it. We didn’t either, but we got through it, and the outcome has been incredible for us.
“There are loads of online tools such as free Udemy courses, and there is a lot of support from the university. The mentors are excellent, and Ai Group has been great.
“Just jump in.”
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Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at the Australian Industry Group. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, features writer, contributor and sub-editor for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK.
