The educator: leading higher and degree apprenticeships through the lens of curriculum design

This chapter explores key considerations for educators who lead curriculum-driven, knowledge-centred, and work-integrated higher and degree apprenticeship modules, courses and programmes. Our discussion draws on insights from social realism, the philosophy of education, knowledge re-contextualisation principles and experiential learning perspectives. As we review apprenticeship standard documents and reflect on our own teaching and learning experiences and established practices, we recognise the inevitable conflicts and paradoxes that exist not only in theoretical frameworks and policy intentions, but also in pedagogic practice. These conflicts can either hinder or support successful changes in the planning and provision of higher and degree apprenticeships. Ultimately, for educators, the central issue is ensuring equal access to both in-classroom theoretical and specialised knowledge frameworks, as well as to intuitive approaches to autonomous vocational learning in the workplace that foster applied knowledge and the development of professional expertise. This fundamental principle is closely linked to ongoing targets and aspirations for social mobility within apprenticeship policy, which remain largely unfulfilled.