College News

Degree Apprenticeship Success

Three students from QE have withstood fierce competition and various application stages to secure coveted degree apprenticeships, combining full-time employment with part-time higher education. Aaron McKnight will begin his manufacturing degree apprenticeship at Fibreline, a furniture producer, whilst studying for a BA (Hons) Chartered Management degree with Leeds Beckett University. Charlie Ellison has been successful in obtaining a laboratory scientist degree apprenticeship at High Force Chemical Analysts and will study through Manchester Metropolitan University and Louie Burdon will start his career with Metnor Construction, a North East based construction company, completing a part-time degree at Northumbria University.

Charlie explains: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity for me to acquire hands-on experience from day one. I believe that learning on the job will definitely help with understanding the academic side of university’. Aaron adds: ‘I applied for many different apprenticeships before I was successful with Fibreline. I feel very lucky to have secured this position and I am really looking forward to learning about all aspects of design, development, sales and the manufacturing process’.

Liz Bryan, Higher Education and Careers Adviser at QE concludes: ‘Degree apprenticeships are extremely competitive, requiring both time and effort to make a successful application. We are very proud of Aaron, Charlie and Louie and we wish them every success in their future careers’.