St Mary’s Awarded £300k Grant to Develop Apprenticeships

The Office for Students (OfS) has today announced that St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) has been awarded a grant of almost £300k to develop new degree apprenticeship programmes.

The new degree apprenticeships are part of SMU’s mission to widen access to higher education and will help people in the local community gain access to the key skills they need to take the next steps in their careers.

SMU will offer the degree apprenticeships in three standards to help new teachers, physiotherapists, and youth workers upskill and gain a degree alongside their full-time job.

Speaking of the funding St Mary’s Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer Prof Sara Spear said, “This is a brilliant development for St Mary’s. We believe that degree apprenticeships are a vitally important route for students looking to engage in higher education in less traditional ways, and this aligns with our strong commitment to widening access to university study.”

St Mary’s Head of Apprenticeships Eleanor Stewart added, “I am delighted that SMU has been successful in securing OfS funding to support the delivery of three new degree apprenticeships. This new funding will lift financial barriers to entry, and will enable new Teachers, Physiotherapists and Youth workers to gain a degree while working.”

These apprenticeship standards have been developed to align with areas of recognised expertise and excellence at SMU. The School of Education at the University was recently named as the no 1 provider of education degrees in the country by the Daily Mail University Guide.

The School of Education also recently retained its Ofsted Outstanding rating for its third consecutive inspection. The school achieved the Outstanding rating across all categories for Primary and Secondary initial teacher training.

If you would like to find out more about these new degree apprenticeships as a business or prospective student, please email apprenticeships@stmarys.ac.uk.