Top 10 sites for finding apprenticeships

Apprenticeships – everyone’s talking about them! As a paid job with training and the opportunity to gain university-level qualifications, apprenticeships offer a great alternative to the traditional uni route.

That means it’s important to be clued up so you can be sure you’re making the right decision about your next steps after school or college.

We’ve put together a list of the 10 best sites where you can find an apprenticeship. We suggest taking a look at all these sites to make sure you’re aware of all the schemes out there in your chosen area of work.

1. Success at School

Naturally, we think Success at School is a great place to find an apprenticeship! We’ve got opportunities from employers across industries – and we offer opportunities to meet them via webinars and networking events. Our site is also packed with detailed information about apprenticeships to help you make your decision, as well as interviews with current and past apprentices so you can get a flavour of what it’s like to actually do an apprenticeship programme. We also have a great email newsletter full of apprenticeship opportunities as well as careers advice linked to the school year.

Best for… In-depth advice and guidance about apprenticeships

2. Best Apprenticeships

Best Apprenticeships is a swish, nice-looking site which makes it easy to search apprenticeships using just a keyword and your location – although the search function seems a bit glitchy at the moment. There are quite a lot of schemes listed and alongside the programmes advertised there are some pretty good guides outlining apprenticeships available in different industries.

Best for… Its clean, simple design

3. UCAS

UCAS lists thousands of apprenticeship programmes, all clearly laid out and with key information provided at the top of each listing. One drawback is that you have to wade through pages and pages of results to get past the ‘promoted’ listings – the ones employers have paid a bit more to have bumped to the top of the list. In terms of sheer numbers, though, UCAS is up there among the best.

Best for… Listing LOADS of opportunities in a clear and accessible way

4. Not Going To Uni

Not Going To Uni – or NGTU – is a pretty well-established site for apprenticeship listings. It tends to list around 800 to 1,000 listings at any one time – that’s a lot of apprenticeships! They have quite a few advice articles, blogs and case studies too, although some of the pieces are a bit thin.

Best for… A simple but powerful search function combined with a high number of listings

5. Get My First Job

Get My First Job is another listing site, with an easy-to-use and powerful search function. You have to be careful to scroll down past the sponsored listings to see your search results. Like many of the other sites, there is some decent information on the basics of apprenticeships as well as high-level careers advice on topics like work experience and industries.

Best for… Its powerful search function

6. All About School Leavers

All About School Leavers lists apprenticeships which you can search using a fairly sophisticated filter which lets you specify the industry, job type, employer and location. The site lists other kinds of school/college leaver opportunities as well. It has advice content, covering industries and general careers advice. Some of this is employer sponsored, which tends to read a bit like an advert – much of it is original though, and there are some useful pieces on the site.

Best for… Listing school/college leaver opportunities as well as apprenticeship programmes

7. Find An Apprenticeship

The government’s Find An Apprenticeship website is comprehensive – it contains almost every scheme out there as employers are encouraged to upload their opportunities to the site. However, Find An Apprenticeship doesn’t have any advice or guidance to help inform you about apprenticeships and decide whether they are right for you. Equivalent Scottish and Welsh sites are also available.

Best for… Listing pretty much every apprenticeship programme in England

8. Rate My Apprenticeship

What makes Rate My Apprenticeship different is that it contains reviews and ratings of apprenticeship programmes submitted by apprentices. It also lists the best employers based on apprentices reviews. If you’re applying to a big employer or trying to decide between schemes, it’s worth checking out Rate My Apprenticeship to see what other apprentices think.

Best for… Reviewing and rating apprenticeship programmes

9. NHS Health Careers

Here’s a tip you won’t find in many places – if you want to work in the NHS, you can now search NHS Health Careers directly for an apprenticeship programme. This is good news because more and more health careers which traditionally required a university degree are now available through an apprenticeship. The Health Careers site is a great place to find them – as well admin and support roles in the NHS which you can train for via an apprenticeship.

Best for… Helping you start a career in the NHS

10. Search engines…

OK, so this isn’t a particular website, but we wanted to remind you how important it is to check out employer websites, which you can find with an internet search. Not every employer advertises their apprenticeship programmes on sites like the ones we’ve listed above, particularly smaller local organisations. Search the web for apprenticeship schemes offered by local employers working in industries you’re interested in.

How we ranked these websites

To rank these websites, we came up with five criteria and gave each site a score for each one. The total we gave each site was the average (mean) of the other criteria.

Website	Programmes listed	Advice content (quality/ amount)	Quality of design	How easy to navigate	Search	TOTAL
Best Apprenticeships	5	3	10	8	7	6.6
UCAS	9	2	8	6	6	6.2
Not Going To Uni	6	5	6	7	7	6.2
Get My First Job	7	4	4	4	8	5.4
All About School Leavers	2	5	5	6	7	5
Find An Apprenticeship	8	0	5	5	6	4.8
Rate My Apprenticeship	3	5	6	6	4	4.8
NHS Health Careers	4	6	4	3	2	3.8

We hope you found this list of 10 places you can find an apprenticeship useful. While you’re here, don’t forget to check out the apprenticeships listed on our site. Set up a Success at School account now to start applying today!