Apprenticeships : How You Can Get Into Tech In The UK And USA For Free And Get Paid

This week's Thursday Thinkpiece, we take a look at something which hit the news this week in the UK around the Digital Literacy future of young people getting into technology. However, even though this route may just be for the young I'll give you some some real ways you can get into the tech industry around the world while getting paid and gaining experience along the way at any age.

Let's be real for a minute: if you look at how people try to break into tech over in the US, the entry-level competition numbers from official industry research like the CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce Report are absolute madness, with recruiters receiving over 400 applications per entry-level role and applicant-to-interview rates plummeting to just 2%.

Workforce data for the Class of 2026 shows fresh US computer science grads walking off the stage with average debt load between $37,000 and $55,000 hanging over their heads, part of a staggering $1.75 Trillion national student debt mountain. Over in the UK, official higher education statistics from the UK Parliament House of Commons Library show it's not much different: tuition fees capped at £9,250 a year plus maintenance loans mean a standard 3-year UK computer science degree leaves Class of 2026 graduates facing upwards of £45,000 to £50,000 in debt.

My current favourite example, which is pretty much a meme within the tech community, are listings looking for 10 years of experience in Claude Code when the product was only released in 2024. That's right up there with a recent one I saw looking for 5+ years of experience in ChatGPT. That's more a symptom of the chaotic AI space we're currently in and the proliferation of recruiters using CoPilot to generate job ads, but it's still hilarious.

The sad truth is that most of those recruiters are also using AI to filter candidates out unless they have a certain certification or experience level on their CV before a human even gets a chance to read it, which is funny and scary in equal…