150x150.png)
The Intelligent Transport Systems sector has spent years talking about skills shortages, but the conversation has often felt abstract, a familiar lament about not enough engineers, not enough digital specialists, not enough people who understand how transport networks actually work. Yet something has shifted in the past year. For the first time in a long time, the national mood music around technical education is changing, and it is changing in a way that gives ITS a genuine opening. Young people are beginning to look again at engineering, computing, and applied science not as fallback options, but as purposeful, future-proof routes into meaningful careers. The Times recently reported a marked rise in students choosing STEM degrees because they see them as a safer bet in an uncertain economy, a way to secure employment rather than gamble on more precarious fields. It is a subtle but important cultural pivot where technical competence is becoming aspirational again.
The BBC’s coverage reinforces the point. Their reporting shows that competition for degree apprenticeships has quadrupled in England over the past three years, with applications rising from 8,100 to 21,800 while available places have fallen from 7,300 to 3,700. That squeeze tells its own story. Young people are not just interested in technical pathways, they are actively chasing them, but often with little success because the supply of places simply does not match the demand. The BBC notes that there are now more than eleven applications for every Level 6 apprenticeship position, compared with fewer than three just two years ago. In other words, the appetite and ambition are there, but the capacity to provide places currently isn’t.
For ITS, this should be a positive wake-up call. We have spent years worrying about how to attract young people into the sector, how to compete with fintech, AI, energy, and the broader digital economy. Yet here is a generation actively seeking paid, structured, technical training routes that combine academic learning with real-world experience. They want degrees, but they want them without the debt burden that now shadows traditional university pathways. They want careers, but they want them to start early, with employers who invest in them. They want relevance, purpose, and stability. ITS can offer all of this, but only if we stop treating apprenticeships as a peripheral add-on and start seeing them as the backbone of our future workforce.
The wider engineering sector is already moving. Research from the University Vocational Awards Council shows a 12% uplift in engineering degree apprenticeships at the UK’s top universities over the past two years, despite funding pressures and levy changes that have made life harder for employers. Demand among young people has “never been higher,” according to UVAC’s chief executive, who also highlights the need for more regional provision and better access for underserved communities. This is not a niche trend. It is a structural shift in how technical talent wants to enter the workforce.
The ITS sector, however, has not yet fully capitalised on this momentum. We talk endlessly about digital twins, connected vehicles, AI-driven traffic management, and the future of mobility, but we still rely heavily on mid-career recruits from adjacent industries rather than building our own pipeline from the ground up. The result is predictable, a workforce that is ageing, overstretched, and increasingly tempted away by sectors that feel more dynamic and better resourced. Apprenticeships, particularly degree apprenticeships, are our chance to break that cycle.
Imagine a national ITS apprenticeship pathway that mirrors the complexity and ambition of the sector itself. Young people could begin their careers not by learning abstract theory, but by working directly with traffic control centres, roadside technology, digital mapping tools, and real-time data systems. They could rotate through public-sector clients, private consultancies, technology suppliers, and operational teams. They could see the whole ecosystem rather than just one corner of it. And crucially, they could earn while they learn, building confidence, competence, and loyalty to the sector.
The Highways industry already understands the value of “growing your own,” but the scale of the opportunity has changed. The BBC’s reporting makes clear that young people are being turned away from degree apprenticeships not because they lack ability, but because there are simply too few places available. The number of applicants has tripled, while the number of positions has halved. That gap is an open invitation for ITS and Highways organisations to step in and expand provision. If we do not, other sectors will, and they will reap the benefits.
There is also a cultural dimension to this. ITS has long struggled with visibility. Young people rarely know what the sector actually does, let alone the breadth of roles within it. Apprenticeships solve part of that problem by making the sector tangible. They allow students to experience the work directly, to see the impact of their efforts on safety, congestion, sustainability, and public life. They make ITS real. And once it becomes real, it becomes attractive.
The Times’ reporting on STEM interest is particularly telling. Students are choosing engineering because they believe it leads to jobs. They are making rational, economically informed decisions about their futures. ITS must position itself within that narrative, not as a niche specialism, but as a central pillar of national infrastructure, digital innovation, and climate-critical transformation. We are not just maintaining roads and signals. We are building the systems that will determine how people move, how freight flows, how cities breathe, and how carbon is cut. That is a mission. Young people respond to missions.
Degree apprenticeships also offer something the sector desperately needs, diversity. Traditional engineering pathways have struggled to attract women, people from minority backgrounds, and those who cannot afford the financial risk of university. Apprenticeships lower the barrier to entry. They open doors. They create a more representative workforce that better reflects the communities we serve, and they bring in the digital talent (coders, analysts, designers, systems thinkers), who increasingly define the future of mobility.
The challenge now is scale. A handful of employers offering a handful of apprenticeships will not solve the workforce crisis. We need coordinated action across the sector, with local authorities, national agencies, consultancies, contractors, technology firms, and professional bodies. We need to work with universities to shape programmes that reflect the realities of ITS rather than generic engineering curricula. We need to create clear progression routes so that apprentices can move into specialist, leadership, and innovation roles. We need to tell the story loudly, confidently, and repeatedly, that ITS is a sector worth joining.
The moment is here. The demand is here. The evidence is here. Young people want technical careers. They want structured training. They want degree apprenticeships. The engineering sector is already responding. ITS must do the same, not reluctantly, but enthusiastically. Because if we seize this opportunity, we can build a workforce that is resilient, diverse, future-ready, and proud of the role it plays in shaping national mobility.
If we do not, the skills shortage will deepen, the competition from other sectors will intensify, and the future of ITS will be shaped by those who chose to invest in talent when we hesitated. This is our chance to grow our own. We should take it.
Click the buttons below to see more articles:
See all ArticlesIndustry InsightEventsITS Thought LeadershipITS Educational