Judges at the Apprenticeship Guide Awards recognized the digital and technology solutions professional apprenticeship degree that is on offer to employers and their apprentices in the U.K.
LONDON — After years of tailoring a program that suits both employers and apprentices, faculty and staff on Northeastern’s London campus are celebrating after being recognized for their efforts.
Representatives from the university recently traveled to Manchester, England, to pick up their trophy for winning the “Best Apprenticeship in IT” category at the British Apprenticeship Guide Awards ceremony.
The award recognized Northeastern’s digital and technology solutions professional apprenticeship degree. Judges praised the program’s retention rate, which is well above the average in England.
The digital and technology solutions program involves teaching apprentices how to deliver technology-enabled solutions to customers in a range of areas, including software, business and systems analysis, cybersecurity, data analysis and network infrastructure.
Employers, including the likes of global tech companies IBM and Futjitsu, enroll their apprentices in the IT-focused degree program, funding the experience through the national apprenticeship levy. Apprentices study over a period of three years, often being afforded a day of study per week, along with time to join an annual in-person boot camp on campus.
Hannah Sullivan-Guckian, associate director of innovation and enterprise on Northeastern’s London campus, is pleased that a course that aims to equip apprentices with the skills they need for their career has been recognized.
“We know what we do is really good,” she says. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes — we do a lot of individualized designing with our learners and with our employers. We go out of our way to really tailor and deliver things for them specifically.”
Technologies which are regularly used by the IT industry in the U.K. and elsewhere, such as customer relationship management systems like Salesforce and business workflow platform Service Now, are integrated into students’ learning to create a “unique program,” Sullivan-Guckian says.
“It is quite nice that, after putting in a lot of effort into developing this over the last five years, it has been recognized in this way,” she continues.
“And maybe the nicest thing is that the judges really picked up on the student outcomes and the support provided for students because, ultimately, it is about them at the end of the day, and it is really nice to support them on a journey so that they can be really successful.”