The skills economy has never been more active, as companies struggle to match building skills to meet the pace of change. A skills shift is well under way, and apprenticeships are giving employers a chance to shape, plan and bring new talent along with them on the journey.
Over 7,600 people joined an apprentice programme in Northern Ireland in 2023/24. Breaking common misconceptions, more than one in three was over the age of 25, providing employers with real opportunity to both reskill and widen the talent pool at a time when unemployment is historically low.
Amongst employers there is now a far greater understanding that apprenticeships, and in particular higher-level apprenticeships which offer people the chance to work in a company while gaining a degree level qualification, play a big role in helping organisations in meeting their future skills needs.
Danske Bank was an early adopter of higher apprenticeships, investing in our first apprenticeship programme with Ulster University back in 2018 before funding was available. Under our model, apprentices work in the bank four days a week and study one day a week.
When we launch our next intake this year, we will have had over 100 apprentices join us since that first programme. This has given us a powerful network who actively apply their skills on the job with 33 colleagues having completed degrees, 55 current apprentices and another 17 to join us in 2025. In the past 12 months we’ve seen 60% achieving first class honours degrees.
The programme has expanded each year, due to both the high calibre of applicants and to support the delivery of our future skills strategy. We have built on our range of qualifications from the original Danske Futures BSc Hons in leading customer operations degree-led programme, to offer other apprenticeships in cyber-security with cloud and network infrastructure, cloud development and data science, fintech and management and accountancy – and all of our apprenticeships now have sustainability modules built into each of them.
There are a number of reasons why apprenticeships work for Danske. First is the quality and diversity of the people the model enables us to access – talented people who might not otherwise go to university, people with life and work experience in other fields, and people within our own teams who want to upskill for the future.
We don’t limit our apprenticeships to school leavers or any particular location and because they only have to be in university one day a week, apprentices can be placed in one of our regional centres in Derry/Londonderry, Fermanagh or Portadown or any of our branches across Northern Ireland.
As well as the fresh external talent, apprenticeships also offer staff within the bank the opportunity to reskill, as traditional banking skills they needed when they joined Danske change and evolve. This has enabled us to keep people with invaluable experience and loyalty to the company within the organisation.
What I call ‘stickability’ is another big appeal of apprenticeships. The average tenure of a role in Northern Ireland today is under two years, but we still have 86% of the apprentices from our first cohort within the bank. In part, that’s because the three-year degree gives them time to feel part of a team and affords them the opportunity to gain promotions or move sideways to gain new skills and widen their career prospects. Several of our recent graduates are already senior managers, and one of our 2018 apprentices is now the executive assistant to the chief executive.
It’s also important to say that apprenticeships are not an easy option, where you turn up to university on a Friday and get a tick in the box. We often hear employers being negative about younger generations, but our experience is that they work very hard and, in fact, none of our apprentices have started and graduated at the same level. They are prepared to make their own luck and seize opportunities to actively develop their careers.
I would certainly encourage those looking at their career and university options to take a close look at what higher-level apprenticeships have to offer. The combination of studying and getting life experience in a working environment, with opportunities to be mentored, promoted and increase your salary, is a powerful one that has acted as a fantastic catalyst for many careers already.