Recruit or Train an Apprentice

Attract new candidates with the tech skills you need or upskill your existing workforce with in-demand expertise.

Recruit an Apprentice

Interested in Becoming an Apprentice?

Kickstart your tech career and earn as you learn, whether you’re a school leaver or an employee looking to upskill or reskill.

Become an Apprentice

Apprenticeships in Scotland 

Discover opportunities in Scotland, whether you’re an employer needing to develop your tech skills, or an individual looking to apply.

Find out more

Why Apprenticeships?

With an estimated 100,000 new opportunities emerging in the UK tech industry every month, including jobs that didn't exist five years ago in areas such as data and AI, there is both huge potential and a growing gap between skills required and talent available. That’s where QA apprenticeships come in.

Our apprenticeships deliver on-the-job training in valuable tech skills, allowing companies to recruit in-demand talent or boost employees’ skills, and giving apprentices the opportunity to earn while they learn, on programmes that seamlessly transition into the workplace.

 

How Apprenticeships Work

What's Involved

An apprenticeship is a modern, hands-on way to train for an exciting new career in tech. Apprentices are paid, receive employee benefits and spend 80% of their time in the workplace. The rest of their time is spent learning via QA's award-winning digital delivery model, allowing them to develop skills at their own pace and earn an industry recognised qualification.

On-Demand Support

Apprentices receive regular support throughout the programme, with one-to-one coaching sessions every six weeks to help with learning, goal setting and feedback. At the end of the programme, apprentices take an End Point Assessment to prove they are ready to apply their new skills in the workplace.

How They're Funded

Apprenticeship training is funded by the UK Government apprenticeship levy. Organisations can use the levy fund to pay for apprenticeship programmes within their own business.

Find out more about the apprenticeship levy and how you can benefit

How QA Can Help

QA offer tech apprenticeship programmes in a range of sought-after specialisms, organised into levels equivalent to qualifications from A level to degree level.

View apprenticeships by level:

01

Level 3

02

Level 4

03

Level 5/6 (Degree)

04

Level 7 (Masters)

View apprenticeships by tech specialism:

Frontloaded Apprenticeships

Boost the digital expertise in your organisation faster with our frontloaded apprenticeships in data, devops or software, providing candidates ready for the job from day one.

Apprenticeship Vacancies

Browse our latest apprenticeship job vacancies. QA has hundreds of openings across the UK, in a range of specialisms, from IT to cyber security, and data to digital marketing.

Search vacancies

Why QA?

We've transformed over 30,000 tech careers through our apprenticeships. Our apprentices benefit from more than 10 years experience in the EdTech sector and the largest specialist in-house instructor and coaching teams in the UK. 

QA partners with the world's leading software vendors such as Microsoft, AWS and Salesforce to deliver our tech apprenticeships. These programmes result in qualifications that are highly valued in the tech sector by the world's most successful organisations.

As well as our big portfolio of England apprenticeships, we also offer Scotland apprenticeships, and degree apprenticeships for those learners wanting to take their skills to the next level.

QA provides holistic support for apprentices through our dedicated Learner Services Team, including learner support and safeguarding. Read our safeguarding policy here.

 

 

 

30,000

careers launched or transformed

24-hour

turn-around for student submissions

3,500+

employers from various industries

Digital by Design

Our award-winning Digital by Design approach to blended learning helps learners develop further and faster whilst enabling managers to track progress via real-time dashboards.

Digital by Design delivers flexible digital learning and the opportunity to practice new skills in a safe environment before entering the workplace, all with easily accessible support. This allows all types of learners to take an approach which works for them and inspires the confidence to add immediate business value.

As a result, QA apprentices are more engaged, gain skills quicker and 97% of all DxD learners complete their training on time, or ahead of time.

Hear From Our Apprentices

An apprenticeship is a powerful tool to jump-start a career in tech. Listen to QA apprentices explain the positive impact that apprenticeships have had on their careers, and why you should get involved.

 

Georgia

Project Management Apprenticeship

Youness

Software Development Apprenticeship

Lawrie

Digital Support Officer Apprenticeship

‘My apprenticeship with QA has been completely life changing for me. I now stand as Head of Marketing for YARD direct. My development and progression was all down to the training and opportunities given to me by QA. Me as a person or in my career would never be as strong, dedicated and as hard working without the motivation of QA and for this I am forever grateful.’

Sarah

Project Management Apprenticeship at SP

‘When I left school I felt quite pressured to go to university, so I decided to do a radiography degree. Halfway through I decided the programme wasn’t for me and started working in retail. After working full-time for so long I dreaded the thought of returning to full-time education. My QA apprenticeship has provided me with the perfect balance between learning and working to achieve my career goals.’

Nodiya

Data & Analytics Apprenticeship at Natwest

‘Originally I was trying to get into med school but couldn’t garner enough funding. I had heard about apprenticeships in school before so I thought I should give that a try. Now, I’m getting paid to learn something I love to do and I really do feel I could become anything and that the sky’s the limit. I think apprenticeships are inclusive, flexible and challenging.’


We are committed to social mobility, diversity and inclusion

We’ve made it our mission to make careers in tech accessible and inclusive to all by delivering programmes like Teach the Nation to Code and helping organisations benefit from greater diversity in their tech teams.

We partner with public and private sector organisations across the UK to achieve our ambition to support individuals from diverse backgrounds realise their potential.


Hear From Businesses We Work With

"We are delighted that QA is joining Microsoft’s Get On 2021 campaign. As one of our UK Gold Learning Partners, QA brings to bear their long-standing pedigree in training, re-skilling and certifying thousands of Microsoft IT Professionals, developers and apprentices."

Simon Lambert – Chief Learning Officer, Microsoft UK

"The apprenticeship programme we’ve created with QA focuses on developing a converged skill set, meaning apprentices can quickly meet the diversity of the job. This makes a real difference to our talent pipeline... this journey will add huge value across the business for years to come."

Graham Webb - Vodafone’s Field Operations Manager

 

 

"Ergo partnered with QA to find the best candidates, confident in the knowledge that it would only suggest dedicated and talented individuals." 

Tom Walton - Design Director

Interested In

Recruiting an Apprentice

Attract new candidates with the tech skills you need or upskill your existing workforce with in-demand expertise.

Recruit an Apprentice

Becoming an Apprentice

Kickstart your tech career and earn as you learn, whether you’re a school leaver or an employee looking to upskill or reskill.

Become an Apprentice

Apprenticeships in Scotland 

Discover opportunities in Scotland, whether you’re an employer needing to develop your tech skills, or an individual looking to apply.

Find out more

Apprenticeships - FAQs

What is an apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships are paid jobs, which allow individuals to combine real work experience with classroom and virtual learning.

With many businesses facing shortages of tech talent, there are plenty of opportunities to become an apprentice in a variety of digital specialisms, including data analytics and data science, software engineering, cyber security and more.

Apprenticeships are funded by businesses, as well as government schemes, such as the apprenticeship levy, making them a viable alternative to other methods of hiring. Apprentices can help to fill digital skills gaps and also help organisations build a pipeline of digital talent.

There is a wide range of support available for individuals who are thinking of starting an apprenticeship, as well as businesses who are considering employing an apprentice.

How do apprenticeships work?

Applying for an apprenticeship is much like applying for a job, with the difference that by working with an organisation like QA, you can get the benefit of support from our team every step of the way.

Read more about how apprenticeships work, including the benefits of becoming an apprentice and a breakdown of the different apprenticeship levels that you can apply for.

How do I get an apprenticeship?

The best place to start is by taking a look at current apprenticeship vacancies. Browse by location to see the opportunities near you, or filter by keyword to see different job roles, such as cyber security, software engineering, data engineering and marketing positions.

Each listing includes a summary of the role profile, as well as qualifications you’ll need to be considered.

Once you’ve applied, our team will support you throughout the process, keeping you posted with updates from the employer.

What apprenticeships are there?

There are more types of apprenticeship roles than you might think. Apprenticeships are about more than just labourers, with thousands of opportunities available across in-demand tech roles in emerging fields such as AI, software engineering and cyber security.

There are also several levels to Apprenticeships, from Level 3, for those who have completed their GCSEs, to Level 7 Masters Level programmes. Whether you’re a school leaver, or a career changer, there are a wide range of apprenticeships which may suit your experience and qualifications.

What is the apprenticeship levy?

The apprenticeship levy is one of the ways that apprenticeships are funded. It is a government scheme designed to provide apprentice employers with funding for the training and recruiting of apprenticeship talent. Learn more about the Apprenticeship Levy and how are team can support your business in the hiring process.

How do I employ an apprentice?

There are many benefits of hiring an apprentice, including government funding, the ability to build your talent pipeline and injecting a learning culture into your business.

QA have decades of experience in connecting businesses with the right talent and skills to help them fill the digital skills gaps in their organisation. We can also support in the hiring and training process, simplifying it for both employers and candidates alike.

Learn more about the step by step process of employing an apprentice in your business.