Degree apprenticeships are taking the UK by storm. In the last year alone, degree apprenticeship starts have increased 81% – the largest increase since they were introduced 5 years ago.

The popularity of degree apprenticeships isn’t surprising. They give learners the opportunity to gain a degree-level qualification and real-life work experience without accruing student debt.

For HEIs, degree apprenticeships offer more funding, extra revenue streams, a more diverse student population and better working relationships with employers. With all these benefits on offer, it’s no wonder some of the UK’s best universities are adding degree apprenticeships to their offering.

Many of these top universities use OneFile to support their degree apprenticeship delivery. OneFile is the UK’s leading apprenticeship software. It has all the integrated features you need to deliver quality degree apprenticeships – including a built-in RPL calculator, eportfolio, course builder, learning journal, evaluation scorecard and reporting suite.

Collaborate with employers

Degree apprentices spend most of their time learning in the workplace. This means HEIs must work closely with employers to plan the curriculum, set activities, provide support and monitor progression – all of which can be completed on OneFile.

Employers have their own OneFile logins, so they can collaborate with tutors easily online. Tutors can send messages, set alerts or schedule video calls via OneFile. Everything is fully visible and available at the touch of a button, so it’s easy to work as a team.

Track the progression of learning

As degree apprentices learn across many different sites, faculties need a transparent and reliable way to track progression remotely.

OneFile automatically tracks progression as apprentices complete their course. Progress is displayed on live dashboards, so learners and tutors can monitor progression at a glance. Tutors can also report on progression data to identify any at-risk learners that may need extra support.

Track off-the-job training against the 20% minimum requirement

Apprentices spend around 20% of the working week studying online or at university. While they’re there, they need to record their learning and gather evidence of their activities, so it counts towards the 20% off-the-job requirement.

With OneFile, apprentices can upload evidence to their portfolio and simply select whether it was completed on or off the job. OneFile will then calculate how many hours they’ve completed as a percentage of their total contracted hours.

Test knowledge and prepare apprentices for EPA

Tutors can use OneFile’s built-in course builder to create multiple-choice quizzes and mock exams to test knowledge. Tutors can set quizzes at the end of modules to check knowledge retention, or use mock exams to help prepare apprentices for their end-point assessment (EPA).

Improve the quality of delivery

Higher and degree apprenticeships will soon be inspected by Ofsted. HEIs are expected to keep full records of each apprentices’ learning journey to show their starting points, progression of learning and actual off-the-job hours – as well as tutor and employer support.

With OneFile, the entire learning is recorded online – from initial assessment to gateway. You’ll have the full audit trail to show Ofsted inspectors and ESFA auditors.

To find out exactly how OneFile works, how you can use it to deliver degree apprenticeships, and what other universities think, download your ultimate guide to degree apprenticeships.