About GAs
Now, more than ever, is the time to ensure your workforce has the right skills and capabilities to help support your organisation’s future success.
Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) are designed around the needs of business and industry and allow employees to continue to work while they earn their degree over the course of up to four years.
Working in partnership with RGU to build the workforce of your future, GAs involve business in the learning process so that it fits seamlessly with your operational priorities and supports the skills needs for your organisation’s future success as our economy recovers.
Developed by Skills Development Scotland, in response to employer demands, Graduate Apprenticeships:
- Address national skills shortages in key areas, such as digital technology and construction
- Allow employers to shape their workforce in line with business demands
- Offer a high value, low cost option for employers to retain and upskill staff
Graduate Apprenticeships are delivered in partnership with the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland
Our Graduate Apprenticeships
Start September 2025
- Graduate Apprenticeship in MSc Cyber Security
- Graduate Apprenticeship in BEng (Hons) Engineering: Design & Manufacture
- Graduate Apprenticeship in BEng (Hons) Engineering: Instrumentation, Measurement & Control
- Graduate Apprenticeship in BA (Hons) Business Management
- Graduate Apprenticeship in BA (Hons) Accounting
- Graduate Apprenticeship in BSc (Hons) Construction and the Built Environment
New pathways for Construction and the Built Environment include:
- Architectural Technology
- Building Surveying
- Construction Management
- Quantity Surveying
Start February 2026
- Graduate Apprenticeship in BA (Hons) Business Management
- Graduate Apprenticeship in MSc Cyber Security
How do they work?
To be eligible your employee must live and work in Scotland in a role related to the course topic.
You can take on a new recruit specifically to undertake a Graduate Apprenticeship or enrol an existing employee.
RGU use a work based learning approach supported by our Virtual Learning Environment, with online lectures, discussion forums and access to course materials. This is complemented by on-campus sessions at RGU in Aberdeen to exchange ideas with their peer group and tutors.
Apprentices apply their learning and skills to solve workplace problems. RGU will support participants with structured learning and reflective practice, while company mentors will help them to apply theory to workplace reality. Assessments can link to your employee’s job, typically via portfolios or projects they do within your business.
Employer & Mentor Benefits
- Suitable for new and existing employees
- Mould recruits from the outset
- Access high-quality staff training at no extra cost
- Designed with industry for your business needs
- Develop and retain skilled employees
- Enhance productivity, morale and service quality
- Mentor peer-group discussions and training opportunities
- Dedicated support from RGU’s course delivery team, including the GA Mentor Consultant
- Opportunity to develop a close working relationship with RGU and access project funding streams
Apprentice Benefits
- Opportunity to participate in innovative teaching, learning and assessment methods
- Study towards your degree without taking a break from employment or building up student debt
- Support from your employer and mentor to undertake work-based learning and protected time for study
- Access to subject matter experts in your business
- Applying your new learning into practice through work-based projects
- Apprentice peer and study group support
- Dedicated support from RGU’s course delivery team, including Course Leaders and the GA Success Coach
- Opportunity to become part of the wider RGU student community, including RGU’s Student Union and clubs
- Fantastic career prospects both during and after your studies
Why RGU?
RGU has decades of experience in working with employers to design programmes that enable employees to study and learn new skills while maintaining workplace productivity.
As a transformational work-based learning initiative Graduate Apprenticeships fit with RGU’s strengths and ethos.
Our engagement with employers has highlighted the importance of offering a flexible approach which allows the apprentice to spend as much time as possible in the work environment, only coming to campus when necessary. Our delivery model support the learning needs of apprentices regardless of their location.
Scottish Apprenticeship Week
Each year Scottish Apprenticeship Week shines a light on the vital role apprenticeships play in supporting people, employers and the economy.
Previous event recordings
Find out more
Testimonials
MSP John Swinney's visit to RGU and Graduate Apprentices:
Find out more about the experience of being a Graduate Apprenticeship student.
The real strength of the GA is in its hands-on approach to learning, and I can safely state the GA has enhanced my career.More Information
This GA not only provided me with technical competence, but also cultivated a strategic mindset and an appreciation for innovation in construction.More Information
The application of the theory directly to the real world environment means that I have been able to put into practice what I have learned.More Information
An experienced North Sea offshore worker has graduated with first class honours having completed a four-year Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) with Robert Gordon University (RGU).
A mature student from Inverness who graduates with a First-Class Graduate Apprenticeship BSc (Hons) in Construction and the Built Environment after switching career with a 6-month-old baby.
When Daniel Carlier walks across the stage at P&J Live it marks the completion of his Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) in BSc (Hons) Data Science as well as juggling a busy family life with a full-time job.
Contact Us
Please get in touch to discuss how we can work together.
- Email us at: gaemployer@rgu.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 1224 263171