Leading firms are offering the brightest teenagers jobs straight from school, tempting them away from university with training salaries of more than £30,000.
Some companies are receiving more than 100 applications for every position, as rising numbers of school leavers shun £9,000-a-year degree courses to move straight into a career.
Just days before this year’s A-level results are due, research has revealed firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the National Grid are taking on more school leavers this year.
It comes as experts warn middle class parents against insisting their children take traditional academic degrees.
Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of university admissions service UCAS, said parents must let teenagers ‘follow their passions’.
Research by the Mail suggests companies are increasingly developing training programmes and apprenticeships specifically tailored to A-level pupils, with some leading to the award of a degree.
The schemes will intensify pressure on universities as they compete to fill an extra 30,000 places this year, after a cap on student numbers is lifted.
Initiatives include the National Grid’s ‘alternative to university’ Engineer Training Programme, which pays a salary of £23,500, rising to £30,150 within two years.
At pharmaceutical firm GSK, an apprenticeship scheme pays a ‘competitive base salary’, with perks including an annual bonus and private healthcare. Some places require at least three Bs at A-level.
Applications have soared 80 per cent since the scheme was formally introduced in 2012, up from around 1,000 to 1,803 for the 2014 intake.
While there were 40 places available in 2012, the company plans to take on 70 school leavers this year.
Marks & Spencer has had 3,000 applications for just 30 places on its management scheme for school leavers – 100 applicants per place.
Its 18-month programme is designed to train new managers on the job and requires two A-levels or equivalent qualifications. Meanwhile PwC, the accountancy firm, has so far received 1,650 applications for 140 ‘higher apprenticeship’ places on its tax, consulting and assurance teams – almost 12 applicants per place.
Students need a minimum A-level score of BBC or equivalent to be considered. The company recruited 103 school leavers on to the scheme in 2012, and 120 last year.
Gaenor Bagley, of PwC, said: ‘Whilst the majority of our student intake join us as graduates, an ever increasing number are joining straight from school.
‘We are now seeing a generation of young people weighing up their career and training options differently, whether because of university fees, economic forecasts or reduced graduate employment.’
KPMG, another accounting group, has received 1,596 applications for 150 places on its school leavers’ programme, in which trainees study for a degree part-time. It takes six years to complete the course and KPMG pays recruits’ tuition fees.
Rob Wall, of the CBI, said school leavers are becoming more ‘savvy’, adding: ‘Learn while you earn options, which provide top-quality training, avoid tuition fees and offer a job at the end, are increasingly attractive.’