Unlocking Potential: How Experiential Learning Supercharges Degree Apprenticeships

In recent years, the higher education sector has faced mounting pressure - from government, industry, and students alike.

There’s growing concern that traditional academic pathways aren’t keeping pace with the realities of a fast-evolving job market. At the same time, universities are being challenged to prove their value - not just through league tables or research outputs, but in how effectively they prepare students for life beyond the lecture hall.

In response, a quiet revolution has been taking shape: the rise of degree apprenticeships and a return to experiential education.

Together, they may offer one of the most promising shifts in the way we think about teaching, learning, and graduate outcomes.

🎓 Degree Apprenticeships: A New Model for Old Problems

When degree apprenticeships were introduced in England in 2015, they were viewed by many as a policy experiment - a response to rising tuition fees and growing employer dissatisfaction. But in less than a decade, they’ve grown into a viable and attractive alternative to traditional full-time university education.

These programmes allow students to:

• Gain a full degree while working in paid employment
• Learn in context, not in abstraction
• Graduate without debt (or with far less of it)

But the appeal of degree apprenticeships goes far beyond affordability. What they represent is a blended model of higher education - one that’s deeply integrated with the world of work, constantly shaped by employer needs, and rich in opportunities for real-time application and feedback.

In my own research, I found that students on degree apprenticeships often developed soft skills - such as confidence, teamwork, and leadership - more rapidly and deeply than their counterparts on traditional programmes. Why? Because they were learning by doing. Daily.

🧠 Experiential Education: The Pedagogy We Forgot to Value

Experiential education isn’t new. Thinkers like John Dewey, David Kolb, and Paulo Freire have long championed the value of learning through experience. But in many parts of academia, we moved away from these models - favouring content delivery, standardised assessments, and knowledge accumulation over action, reflection, and application.

Now, in the face of a crisis in graduate employability and student engagement, experiential education is making a comeback - and rightly so.

When students work on real-world projects, engage in simulations, or solve problems with industry partners, learning becomes sticky. It’s not just memorised for an exam - it’s internalised, tested, reflected upon. And it often ignites the kinds of soft skills that employers consistently rank above technical know-how.

My action-research has introduced several experiential frameworks to help educators design these experiences intentionally, ensuring that they foster both academic growth and workplace readiness.

🔄 The Common Thread: Integration

What connects degree apprenticeships and experiential education is a powerful idea: integration.

• Integration of academic and professional learning
• Integration of theory and practice
• Integration of the classroom and the workplace

This shift has the potential to reframe how we think about higher education entirely - not as a retreat from the real world, but as a preparation ground deeply connected to it.

🌱 Looking Ahead

As a sector, we can’t afford to ignore these shifts.

If we’re serious about improving teaching quality, increasing employability, and widening participation, then degree apprenticeships and experiential education must be central to the conversation.

They’re not just responses to external pressure - they’re opportunities to rethink what it means to educate well in the 21st century.