Completion is normally the biggest pay jump of the programme — you come off an apprentice scale and onto a standard role. How big depends far more on sector and employer than on what you started at, and the honest answer is that the spread is enormous. Ask what happened to the last cohort; it is a fair question and a revealing one.
What the step actually looks like
Through the programme, pay rises in defined annual increments on an apprentice scale. At completion, you leave that scale entirely. In most sectors that means moving to the same band the employer would put a graduate hire on — except that you arrive with four years of experience, which typically places you above the entry rung rather than on it.
Broad picture across sectors, from what apprentices report and what employers advertise for equivalent experienced roles:
- Technology and software — the largest jumps, and the largest spread. Strong performers at well-known employers report substantial increases on completion, with a further step available on moving externally.
- Financial and professional services — heavily tied to the professional qualification. Completing an ACA or equivalent alongside the degree is usually worth more than the degree itself, and the pay steps track qualification milestones rather than the apprenticeship.
- Law — solicitor apprenticeships qualify you to practise, and newly-qualified salaries at commercial firms are among the highest outcomes available from any route at that age. A very small number of programmes, and correspondingly hard to get.
- Engineering and defence — more modest jumps at completion but reliable long-term progression, and chartership is the milestone that matters more than the finish date.
- Public sector and NHS — the smallest steps, because pay is banded and the bands are published. The trade is transparency and security rather than upside.
Deliberately qualitative. Specific post-completion figures circulating online are mostly single anecdotes, and quoting them as data would be inventing precision that does not exist.
Why staying is often the expensive choice
A consistent pattern: internal pay bands move slowly, while the external market prices four years of experience plus a degree quite highly. Employers know they have goodwill — they funded your degree — and pay rises after completion frequently lag what you could get elsewhere.
Many apprentices report their largest single increase came from moving employer 12 to 24 months after finishing. That is not an argument for leaving; it is an argument for knowing your market value rather than assuming your employer will offer it unprompted.
Two things to check before you act on that: whether your contract has a training cost repayment clause tied to leaving within a window after completion, and how the employer treats people who stay — some have genuinely strong post-apprentice progression and it is worth knowing which kind yours is.
The comparison that actually matters
Not apprentice salary against graduate salary at the same job title — apprentice position against graduate position at the same age. At 22, a degree apprentice typically has:
- Four years of salary earned rather than four years of fees accrued
- Four years of employer pension contributions compounding
- No student loan deduction from every future payslip
- Four years of experience, which is what moves you up bands fastest
The graduate may reach the same job title within a few years. Closing the accumulated gap — savings, pension, and the absence of a loan repayment on every payslip for decades — is a much harder problem. The cost calculator puts real numbers on it.
What to ask before you accept an offer
- What is the salary at each year of the programme?
- What is the salary on completion, and what did last year's cohort actually move to?
- What proportion of the last cohort was kept on?
- What professional qualification is funded alongside the degree?
- Is there a repayment clause tied to leaving after completion?
Employers vary far more on these five than on starting salary, and starting salary is the only one most applicants compare.
Next: the best paid programmes right now, or browse live roles.