Apprentice Information - Foundation Degrees

These are a new type of degree, introduced in 2001 as new vocational qualifications that are employer-demand led. Employers lead in the design through their Sectors Skills Council to ensure that they provide the skills and knowledge to meet their current needs, while academic rigour is ensured by validation by a university.
They have a much higher requirement for workplace competence than honours degree courses and contain workplace assignments to put the theoretical content into practice. The workplace is considered to be a learning environment just as much as the lecture theatre. In that respect they are distinctive to other qualifications in which work-based learning or placements are a peripheral requirement.
They have an equivalent standard to the second year of an honours degree course and attract a minimum of 240 credits.
All Foundation Degrees are degrees in their own right but are also required to offer progression to an honours degree course by further study.
They offer an ideal progression for those who have undertaken an Apprenticeship or NVQ level 3 courses.
Foundation degrees are delivered in innovative and flexible ways, often designed around the requirements of the workplace and the commitments of the employee. They can be studied full-time or part-time. They can involve day release, block release at agreed points or they can be delivered entirely by distance learning with support from tutors and workplace mentors agreed between the employers and educational institutions.
The Foundation Degree better prepares you for work in a relevant occupation through personal and professional development, and because of the vocationally specific curricula. Consequently you gain better employability skills, giving you better career prospects and increased job satisfaction.
Both universities and colleges offer Foundation Degrees. For a list of those currently available, the UCAS website has a special Foundation Degrees section. To access this, click here.
To apply you will need to go through UCAS if you are under 21 and want to study full time, or you can apply direct to the institution if you are 21 or over or want to study on a part-time basis.
Further information on Foundation Degrees can be found at Foundation Degree Forward. For more information click here.