Question: I have some question about your apprenticeship degree: - Does it mix university with an apprenticeship? - Where can you go after this? - What can you study in this, for example just biology or specific trades in biology? - Any regrets from it? Or better alternatives? - Is this how you get a foundations degree and how can this progress your career? Thank you.

Caroline Ratcliffe answered on 17 Dec 2025:

There are multiple ways you can do this and where you can go with it is up to you as you can study as much or as little as you want to.

Best thing to remember is all qualifications can be built upon and you can “scaffold” your way up the levels.

In simple terms (as I have used it veeeeeery broadly):
GCSE’s tend to come in around L2,
A-Levels and T-Levels are L3,
Diplomas and Certificates come in at L4,
Foundation Degree is L5,
Degrees (either BSc (Hons) or BA (Hons)) are L6,
Masters Degrees are L7

There are apprenticeships at L2, L3, L4 that often run with colleges where you will attend classroom lessons and have an industry placement alongside it.

Within the NHS currently, there are apprenticeships running at L2, L3, L4, L5 but then they also funded my L6 and L7 qualifications so I could specialise in what I do.
In the NHS, often the L2, L3, L4 are taught by independent training providers (like me) or sometimes with local colleges, L5, L6 and L7 are often taught by Universities.

With regards to the subject you study, if you go the college route, you pick the subject so probably Health and Social Care or Childhood Studies (dependant on what you prefer).
If you went the NHS route, your studied subject would be specific to your work area – for example, my Foundation Degree is in Clinical Imaging because I was working in that department, x-raying patients, but as there is now over 360 job roles in the NHS, potentially there is an apprenticeship scheme for each one!

If you are thinking outside the NHS, I know the Police also now do a degree based apprenticeship scheme as I have managed to help some of my students enrol on it and I believe other organisations are considering them as well.

If you know roughly what area/job role you want to work in, it is easier to pick that first and then see the training options around it. You do not have to go immediately to University when you leave school if you do not want to, not everyone is destined to take that route. I didn’t 🙂