There is no single official list of UK degree apprenticeships. Vacancies are scattered across a government service, hundreds of individual employer career sites, university partnership pages, four separate national systems, and a handful of commercial job boards — each with different coverage and none of them complete.
This guide covers every source worth using, what each one genuinely does well, and where each one falls short.
The short answer
If you want the practical version without the detail:
- GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship — the official service and the largest single source, but England only and dominated by Level 2–3 roles.
- Employer career pages — where applications actually go, and often where roles appear first.
- A degree-level aggregator — combines the above and filters out everything below Level 4, which is the bulk of the work.
- Your nation's service — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run entirely separate systems.
- RateMyApprenticeship — for apprentice reviews once you have a shortlist.
Most people who end up with an offer used two or three of these together, not one.
Why degree apprenticeships are harder to find than university courses
Applying to university means one system, one deadline, five choices, one form. Degree apprenticeships have none of that. Every vacancy is a job advert posted by an individual employer on its own schedule, and there is no obligation for it to appear in any central index.
Three consequences follow, and they explain most of the frustration people have with the search:
- Coverage is fragmented. A programme missing from one site is not a programme that doesn't exist. It may simply not have been posted there.
- Degree-level roles are buried. The government service and most job boards list apprenticeships from Level 2 upwards. Level 6 and 7 roles are a small fraction of a very large pool.
- Vacancies vanish without warning. Rolling recruitment means an employer can close a vacancy the day the cohort fills, often months before the advertised deadline. Search frequency matters more than search effort.
Every source, compared
Listed roughly in the order most people should use them.
ApprentiFinder
Degree-level onlyOur own service, so treat this entry with appropriate scepticism — but here is precisely what it does. ApprentiFinder aggregates vacancies from the GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship API, employer career pages, and university partnership portals into a single index, filtered down to Level 4 to 7 only. Because the underlying sources overlap imperfectly, combining them surfaces roles that no single one of them lists. You can filter by level, sector, salary, location and distance, save roles to track deadlines, and every listing links straight to the employer's own application page.
GOV.UK — Find an Apprenticeship
Official · EnglandThe official government vacancy service and the single largest source of apprenticeship listings in England. Employers using the apprenticeship service to fund training post vacancies here, so coverage of levy-funded programmes is strong, and it is completely free with no account needed to search.
Employer career pages
Primary sourceEvery application ultimately goes through the employer's own portal, and a meaningful number of programmes — particularly at large professional services firms and tech companies — open on the employer's early careers site before appearing anywhere else. This is the source of truth for dates, requirements, and process.
UCAS
Guidance + some listingsUCAS has expanded its apprenticeship coverage considerably and now carries vacancy listings alongside its guidance content. For students already inside the UCAS ecosystem it's a natural place to look, and its explanatory material on how apprenticeships compare to degrees is solid.
RateMyApprenticeship
Reviews + listingsGenuinely useful for something no vacancy database provides: first-hand reviews written by current and former apprentices about what a programme is actually like. It also carries listings and publishes well-known employer rankings.
School-leaver job boards
Varied coverageGetMyFirstJob, Not Going To Uni, AllAboutSchoolLeavers and similar sites aggregate school-leaver opportunities including degree apprenticeships. Each has different employer relationships, so each surfaces a slightly different set of roles.
University partnership pages
UnderusedUniversities that deliver degree apprenticeships publish which programmes they run and which employers they partner with — Aston, Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Met, Exeter, Northumbria and many others. This gives you a list of employers to then check directly.
LinkedIn and general job boards
SupplementarySome employers push apprenticeship vacancies to LinkedIn, Indeed and other general boards, and LinkedIn is useful for following employers and spotting early-careers announcements before a formal posting.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
This is the detail that catches people out most often: GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship covers England only. If you are searching from elsewhere in the UK, or willing to study elsewhere, each nation runs its own system with its own vacancy service and its own terminology.
| Nation | Where vacancies are listed | What's different |
|---|---|---|
| England | GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship ↗ | The official vacancy service. Degree apprenticeships run at Levels 4–7 and are funded through the Apprenticeship Levy. |
| Scotland | Apprenticeships.scot ↗ | Scotland runs Graduate Apprenticeships rather than English-style degree apprenticeships. Same principle — work-based, degree-awarding, no fees — but a separate system with its own vacancy service, delivered with Scottish universities. |
| Wales | Careers Wales / Working Wales ↗ | Wales has its own apprenticeship framework and vacancy listings. Degree apprenticeship provision is more limited than England's and concentrated in specific sectors. |
| Northern Ireland | NI Direct — Higher Level Apprenticeships ↗ | Northern Ireland runs Higher Level Apprenticeships at Levels 4–7, delivered through further education colleges and universities. |
Terminology matters when you search. Scotland calls them Graduate Apprenticeships; Northern Ireland calls them Higher Level Apprenticeships. Searching "degree apprenticeship" on a Scottish service will return far less than the route actually offers.
A search routine that actually works
Finding vacancies is a habit, not a one-off session. The routine below takes about twenty minutes a week and is what separates people with ten applications in by November from people with three in by March.
- Early September: set your baseline. Search a degree-level aggregator and the GOV.UK service, and note every role that fits. This is your starting shortlist.
- Identify 10–15 target employers. Include a few brand names, several large-volume recruiters, and — importantly — smaller and regional employers, where applications per place are far lower.
- Turn on alerts everywhere you can. Employer careers-page alerts, aggregator saved searches, LinkedIn follows. Alerts beat manual checking because rolling recruitment rewards speed.
- Check weekly, not daily or monthly. Weekly through September to March catches nearly everything without eating your life.
- Track deadlines in one place. Opening date, closing date, and the stage you've reached for each role. Missing a deadline you found is a worse outcome than never finding it.
- Re-sweep in spring and summer. Cohorts that don't fill get re-advertised in April, May and even August. Almost nobody is still looking then, which makes it the least competitive window of the year.
Search every degree-level vacancy at once
ApprentiFinder pulls from the GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship service, employer career pages, and university partnership portals into one index — Levels 4 to 7 only, updated daily, every region of the UK. Filter by sector, level, salary and distance, save roles to track their deadlines, and apply straight through to the employer. Free, no account required to browse.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find degree apprenticeships in the UK?
The main sources are the GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship service (official, England only, covers all levels), employer career pages (where every application ultimately goes and where many roles appear first), UCAS, specialist sites such as RateMyApprenticeship and school-leaver job boards, and degree-level aggregators such as ApprentiFinder that combine these sources and filter to Levels 4 to 7. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own separate vacancy services. No single source lists everything, so most successful applicants use two or three in combination.
Is there a UCAS for degree apprenticeships?
No. There is no central application system for degree apprenticeships. UCAS provides guidance and carries some vacancy listings, but every application goes directly to the employer through its own portal, with its own opening date, closing date, and selection process. This is the main structural difference from applying to university and the main reason vacancies are harder to find.
Does the GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship service list every degree apprenticeship?
It is the largest single source in England and the best official starting point, but it is not exhaustive. It covers England only, and some employers advertise on their own early careers site before posting to the government service, or handle recruitment entirely through their own portal. It also lists apprenticeships from Level 2 upwards, so degree-level roles form a small share of the results and need filtering.
When do degree apprenticeship vacancies get posted?
The main wave opens in September and October for programmes starting the following September, with a second wave in January and scattered vacancies appearing through spring and summer. Many employers recruit on a rolling basis and close a vacancy once the cohort is full, so a role can disappear months before its advertised deadline. Checking weekly from early September is more effective than checking intensively in spring.
How do I find degree apprenticeships near me?
Most vacancy services let you filter by location, though the useful radius varies — some degree apprenticeships expect you on site daily, while others are hybrid or have block-release study that makes a longer commute workable. On ApprentiFinder you can filter by location and distance across all degree-level vacancies at once. Bear in mind that London and the major cities carry the highest concentration of programmes, and some employers will support relocation.
Are degree apprenticeships listed differently in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Yes. GOV.UK Find an Apprenticeship covers England only. Scotland runs Graduate Apprenticeships through Apprenticeships.scot, Wales lists through Careers Wales, and Northern Ireland runs Higher Level Apprenticeships listed via NI Direct. The programmes work on the same principle — paid work combined with a fully funded degree — but they are separate systems with separate vacancy services.