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Some interesting points raised here however from both sides of the school/HE divide I can see a number of barriers to greater take up of apprenticeships. The message coming from government and schools to young people is that a degree is a passport to a potential portfolio career and they shouldn't expect a job for life. This runs parallel with the message that your degree has to provide a certain currency within the wider jobs market which puts a certain cache on institutional ranking. With degree programmes from the Russell Group carrying a premium, then gaining a qualification from a less highly ranked institution through the apprenticeship route is always going to have an image problem and feel more risky to young people. I am not saying that the ranking of institutions in this way is right but it would be naive to think that it didn't influence young people's choices.