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Workforce Development

Graduate Apprenticeships

Graduate Apprenticeships provide fully-funded structured training to degree level for employees – a great way to mould new recruits from the outset and/or upskill your staff to make your business more productive.

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

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Our Graduate Apprenticeships

Start February 2025

Start September 2025

New pathways for Construction and the Built Environment include:

  • Architectural Technology
  • Building Surveying
  • Construction Management
  • Quantity Surveying


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.

Megan Jones

Megan Jones’ walk across The Music Hall stage marks not only the completion of her Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) BEng (Hons) Engineering: Design and Manufacture but also the successful balancing act of becoming a mother, studying and working full-time.

Richard Thomson

For Richard Thomson successfully completing a Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) in BSc (Hons) Data Science with first-class honours at RGU is the perfect step forward for his career.

Catriona Stevenson

A mother of two from Westhill has graduated with a first-class degree - despite the revelation of being diagnosed with both dyslexia and dysgraphia, something she describes as a “lightbulb moment”.

Joni Gellatly

For Joni Gellatly completing a Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) in Data Science is a significant achievement after successfully finishing her studies while looking after her family, coaching a football team and continuing to work full-time.


Contact Us

Please get in touch to discuss how we can work together.

News

Published: Wednesday 19 June 2024

Robert Gordon University’s Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) in Construction and the Built Environment has received prestigious professional accreditation from The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) for the next five years, enhancing the University’s reputation for upskilling through its GA programme.

News

Published: Monday 15 April 2024

The extraordinary stories of students who entered higher education from a non-traditional route is being highlighted in a new national campaign by Universities Scotland.

News

Published: Monday 07 March 2022

Callum Duguid, a Contract Support Engineer at Aberdeen-based EnerMech, has continually strived for professional development and this has been most recently achieved through his Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) with RGU.

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