This is not a question with a general answer, and anyone offering one is selling something. What follows is the comparison on the dimensions that genuinely differ, so the decision can be made on the right grounds.
| Apprenticeship | University degree | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Employee with a contract | Student |
| Income | Paid a wage throughout | No wage; maintenance loan available |
| Tuition cost | Paid by the employer and government | Tuition fee loan, repaid from earnings |
| Time | From around 8 months to several years, set by the standard | Typically 3 years full time |
| Where you learn | Mostly at work, with off-the-job training | Mostly at the institution |
| Choice available | Limited to the vacancies employers are offering near you | Wide national choice of courses |
| Holiday | Standard employee annual leave | Long vacations |
| If it goes wrong | Job and training are linked; losing one affects the other | Course can usually be changed or paused |
The availability point is the big one
University applications are made to courses. Apprenticeship applications are made to jobs, and the job has to exist, in an occupation you want, within travelling distance, at the time you are looking. That is a much tighter constraint than a UCAS form, and it is the single most common reason a student who wants an apprenticeship ends up somewhere else.
The scale is worth knowing. There were 3,380 Level 6 apprenticeship starts by under-19s in the current period, across all of England and all occupations.
Questions worth asking instead
- What occupation? Some professions are far better served by one route than the other. Start there, not with the route.
- What does the employer do afterwards? Ask what proportion of apprentices are retained, and at what level.
- Would either be reversible? Leaving an apprenticeship means leaving a job. Consider how easy it would be to change direction at 20.
- Is a degree apprenticeship realistic? See what is a degree apprenticeship? for how few there are.
One thing to be careful with: comparisons of graduate and apprentice earnings usually rest on very different cohorts studying very different subjects, and rarely adjust for either. Treat any single headline earnings figure with suspicion.