Euan Blair, the son of Tony Blair, founded an education start-up that competes with colleges by providing debt-free degrees for apprentices who work at companies like Mastercard and Rolls-Royce.
The firm founded by the son of the former prime minister in 2016 has been given permission to award degrees in a variety of fields, including technology and data science.
Later this month, 170 students will begin enrollment for Multiverse degrees; applications for all 16 to 24 year olds will open later in the year.
Young people have been forced to make an unnatural choice between obtaining a degree or beginning a profession and quickly gaining practical skills, according to Elisabeth Barrett, vice president of learning at Multiverse.
They can now perform both. We see applied degrees as a way for individuals to get a high-quality education while also replacing debt with income.
The possibility of being unprepared for the contemporary workplace by the time they graduate is replaced with the assurance of a high-quality job from the outset.
Additionally, theoretical lectures and out-of-date tests are replaced with personalised coaching and practical learning.
Our degrees will provide instruction in the fields that are driving the modern economy, such as data and technology.
Our technology and computing programmes are already more employable than those in computer science.
We can go much farther because of the degree-awarding abilities of Multiverse.
Over the course of the three-year programme, students will spend about a fifth of their time working with multiverse coaches and specialists in the relevant field.
They will also work as an apprentice for one of the many companies—including Rolls-Royce and Mastercard—earning a starting wage of at least £18,000 annually.
The Office for Students, the regulator, has given Mr. Blair’s organisation the first-ever degree-awarding authority for an apprenticeship provider.
“We welcome innovation in the field to increase the alternatives and quality of courses for students,” said Jean Arnold, head of quality at the Office for Students.
We’re happy to provide Multiverse the authority to confer degrees since it offers students possibilities and options.
The value of Mr. Blair’s business, which has already assisted more than 8,000 apprentices, is close to £1.4 billion.
There has never been a more pressing need to develop an alternative to higher education that is equitable and inclusive, and there is a tremendous opportunity before us to change the status quo with apprenticeships, according to Mr. Blair, who previously discussed his goal of providing an alternative to universities.
Apprentices will not incur any debt since their company will pay for their training.
The apprenticeship levy, which was originally implemented in April 2017 to assist the Government finance their aim to offer more training courses, covers the cost of tuition.
If an employer’s annual pay bill exceeds £3 million, they must pay the levy at a rate of 0.5%.
Smaller businesses with annual pay bills under £3 million only cover 5% of the cost of their apprentices’ training; the government covers the other 85%.
Tony Blair, a former Labour prime minister, pledged in 1997 to concentrate on “education, education, education” in order to get half of school-leavers into universities.
After being elected as Prime Minister in 1997 on the platform that “education, education, education” would be New Labour’s top goals, Mr. Blair’s father, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, pledged to get half of school-leavers into universities.
In 1998, the Labour Party administration of Tony Blair enacted the introduction of $1,000 annual university tuition fees.
Opposition parties and the National Union of Students vehemently opposed the plan and vowed to battle “tooth and nail against them.”
In spite of past commitments to keep tuition costs flat, Labour announced intentions to increase them to £3,000 year in 2003.
This meant that graduates would have to begin paying back fees as soon as they reached an annual income of £15,000.
Tony Blair supported the price increase by arguing that graduates “should pay more to their university education.”
Following further increases by succeeding administrations, the annual tuition at English institutions is currently £9,250.