The Office for Students (OfS) has awarded Keele University a significant share of £14 million to to expand and further develop its degree apprenticeship courses in more subject areas. 

The second round of OfS degree apprenticeship funding has seen Keele secure funding to develop four  new degree apprenticeship courses in a wide range of subjects including Midwifery , Geoscience, Management and Occupational Therapy. An additional specialism will be added to Registered Nurse apprenticeship provision and funded initiatives will increase participation in the wider degree apprenticeship portfolio.  

The university secured a total of £472,261 from the OfS in this round of the initiative, following on from an earlier first-round success in December. 

The degree apprenticeship funding competition run by the OfS is designed to expand degree apprenticeship provision at universities and colleges, as well as allowing them to increase the number of students on existing programmes and offer more opportunities for these students. 

Lou Taylor-Murison, Head of Apprenticeships and Partnership-based Learning at Keele University, said: “This funding is significant and will enable us to co-design with key stakeholders; growing our successful degree apprenticeship portfolio into new areas including management, geosciences and health professions.  

“We worked collaboratively in the locality to develop a proposal which will actively seek to better support SMEs to access apprenticeships, facilitate progression for young people and better enable those coming with experience to transition to degree apprenticeships. The funds allocated by this proposal enable us to make further progress to meet future skills needs and support participation.” 

Professor Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Keele University, added: “I’m delighted by this second significant and important successful funding bid to the Office for Students, which will enable us to further grow our highly successful Degree Apprenticeship provision at Keele University through the development of new degree apprenticeships and expanding our existing successful provision. 

“Degree apprenticeships form an increasingly important part of our educational provision at Keele, working closely with local, regional and national employers to meet future skills and workforce needs and provide people at all stages of their career with personal career development opportunities.”