Degree Apprenticeships at the University of Hull

A degree apprenticeship lets you work full-time for an employer while studying for a full bachelor’s or master’s degree, with the university acting as your training provider rather than your sole source of income and structure. Fees are paid through the employer and the apprenticeship levy system rather than out of a student loan, and you’re on a salary throughout, not a student budget. For anyone in the Humber weighing this route against a conventional degree, our apprenticeships versus university guide sets out the trade-offs in more detail.

The University of Hull runs a number of these programmes, sitting at Level 6 (bachelor’s equivalent) and Level 7 (master’s equivalent) on the apprenticeship framework. Two routes are particularly relevant to people building a career in the Humber region: nursing, and offshore wind engineering.

Nursing degree apprenticeship

The nursing degree apprenticeship is a Level 6 route into registered nursing, built for people who want to qualify as a nurse without taking the traditional full-time student path. You work as a trainee nursing associate or nursing apprentice for a sponsoring NHS employer while studying towards your nursing degree at the University of Hull, with placements and practice hours built into the programme alongside academic study.

This suits two groups particularly well: healthcare assistants and support workers already employed in the NHS who want to progress into a registered nursing role without giving up their income, and career changers who want a structured, funded way into nursing rather than self-funding a three-year degree. Given the scale of the NHS Humber Health Partnership and Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust as local employers, there’s a reasonably steady flow of sponsored places tied to trust workforce planning. Our NHS apprenticeships in the Humber guide and the healthcare sector overview cover the wider landscape of NHS entry routes, including where nursing degree apprenticeships fit alongside other clinical apprenticeship levels.

MSc Offshore Wind Energy Engineering degree apprenticeship

At Level 7, the University of Hull offers an MSc Offshore Wind Energy Engineering degree apprenticeship, a master’s-level programme aimed at engineers already working in the sector who want to deepen their technical specialism in offshore wind. Given the concentration of offshore wind employers across the Humber, referred to locally as the Energy Estuary, this is one of the more directly regional degree apprenticeships on offer anywhere in the country.

This route is typically taken by people already in engineering roles with an offshore wind employer, sponsored by that employer to study part-time or in structured blocks around their job, rather than by school leavers starting from scratch. If you’re earlier in your journey towards offshore wind engineering, our guide to becoming a wind turbine technician and the offshore wind and renewables sector page cover the more accessible entry-level and technician routes that can lead towards a role like this over time.

Hubble Careers and the Hull Employability Award

Alongside its degree apprenticeship provision, the University of Hull runs Hubble Careers, its central careers and employability service, which supports both degree apprentices and conventional students with career planning, CV and interview preparation, and connections to employers. Because degree apprentices are already employed, most of their day-to-day career support comes through their employer, but Hubble Careers remains a resource for broader career development, professional networking and planning what comes after the apprenticeship ends.

The university also runs the Hull Employability Award, a scheme that recognises skills and experience built up alongside formal study, such as volunteering, work experience, leadership activities and careers engagement. For degree apprentices, whose “extracurricular” experience is effectively their day job, this kind of structured recognition can be a useful way of evidencing broader employability skills for future career moves, not just the technical content of the degree itself.

How to apply

Degree apprenticeship places are tied to an employer sponsor, so the practical route in is usually one of the following:

1. Apply for an advertised apprenticeship vacancy with an employer that partners with the University of Hull, where the job listing itself specifies the degree apprenticeship as part of the role.
2. If you’re already employed, particularly in the NHS or in an offshore wind engineering role, ask your employer whether they support degree apprenticeship routes and whether a University of Hull programme fits your role.
3. Check entry requirements carefully, since Level 6 routes like nursing typically ask for standard university entry qualifications or equivalent experience, while Level 7 routes like the MSc Offshore Wind Energy Engineering apprenticeship generally expect a relevant existing degree or substantial professional experience in engineering.

For a broader view of how apprenticeships work across all levels in the city, our Hull apprenticeships guide is a useful starting point, and GOV.UK’s Find an Apprenticeship service lists live vacancies as they’re advertised.