New research by notgoingtouni.co.uk has discovered that over half of teachers within the UK don't educate their students on apprenticeships, vocational training and the others options readily available to them for when they complete their studies.
Coinciding with National Apprenticeship Week 2015 (Monday 9 March until Friday 13 March), www.notgoingtouni.co.uk has launched its annual Apprenticeship and Vocational Training Guide aimed at students who are soon leaving secondary education.
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For those potentially looking for a different route to university, the guide lays out a wide variety of apprenticeship and vocational training options and alternatives to ensure students have all the information to hand when making a choice on their future education.
In conjunction with the launch of this year’s guide, notgoingtouni.co.uk has recently discovered that many teachers throughout the UK still don’t inform their students of all the opportunities available to them following their studies.
Almost 1,800 teachers and lecturers, all of whom work closely alongside those choosing what to do with their future, were quizzed about their recommendations for students when choosing what to do after GCSE’s, A-Levels and college.
When asked ‘Which paths do you predominantly educate your students on?’ and provided with a list of possible options, almost all (92%) stated that they promote university options over all others, while only 57% admitted to informing young people about the apprenticeship and vocational training available to them.
Wanting to delve a little deeper, all respondents who stated that they don’t educate their students on apprenticeships and vocational training were asked to state why. When provided with a list of possible reasons and told to select all that applied, the most common reasons were ‘didn’t know enough about them to talk about them’ (68%) and ‘the school values students who go on to university’ (35%).
The research also found that 18% of respondents had been approached by students wanting more information on alternative opportunities, to which almost three quarters (71%) admitted to encouraging their students to either do the research themselves or look further into degree opportunities.
Managing Director of notgoingtouni.co.uk, Spencer Mehlman commented: “We’ve said it time and time again, but the results here clearly go to show that teachers favour university as the route for their students upon completing their studies.
“Young people can be incredibly impressionable, and when they’re under an immense level of pressure to decide what to do with their future, it’s not fair that not all students are presented with all of the opportunities available to them.
How can someone possibly make an informed decision when they’re only told about university? We’re not at all against students going down the route of undertaking a degree, we just want to ensure that they are educated upon all routes so that they can make the right decision for themselves.”
