Education-Technology Startup Multiverse Raises $130 Million

Euan Blair: 'A one-size-fits all model around university is unfair'

Future of financial services: New report on skills in the sector

Our research into the state of apprenticeships in financial services

We're the first apprenticeship provider with the power to award degrees

Introducing Multiverse Degrees

Announcing our partnership with Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover joins forces with Multiverse to deliver data skills training to employees

Multiverse staff and apprentices in a meeting room

Press and media

Maria Sarwar, Talent Executive 

Ilyas Sagar-Ouriaghl

Freddie Pascoe, Employer Brand Coordinator

Paige Rinke, VP People & Talent 

Lucinda Morgan

Razvan Spatariu

Ayla Kelly

Theo Oulton

Adrianne Morrison, Programme Lead

Jay Mitchell

Ho-Yon Mak

Ghost

Dan Turner

Ho-Yon Mak old

Guest contributor

Chloe Gale

Team Multiverse

Chris Gregori

Katie Allner is Head of B2B Marketing at Multiverse.
Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Katie Allner

Euan Blair is founder and CEO of Multiverse.
Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Euan Blair

Charlotte Abrahamson is Senior Community Manager at Multiverse. Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Charlotte Abrahamson

Siobhan Randell is Senior Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Manager at Multiverse. Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Siobhan Randell

Chloé Archipiano

Gordon MacRae

Alisa Voitika is B2B Marketing Manager at Multiverse. Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Alisa Voitika

Michael Mander

Afua Laast is Early Talent Executive at Multiverse. Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Afua Laast

Georgina Hewison is B2C Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Multiverse. Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Georgina Hewison

Alex Hopley is Content Manager at Multiverse. Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. Multiverse works with over 300 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse talent pipeline. Apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Alex Hopley

Naomi Coutinho

Bella Pringle

Michael Mander Adm

Alex Barnicoat

Metia Developer

Cat McCormack

Sachin Goyal

Libby Adams is a Data Manager at the NHS and is currently completing a Data Fellowship apprenticeship at Multiverse.

Libby Adams

Karoline Lende, Software Engineer 

Two colleagues sitting at a laptop looking at a laptop and smiling

5 ways professional apprenticeships elevate your entry-level hiring 

Even before we faced the challenging talent landscape, employers were beginning to recognize the full weight of a modern entry-level hiring strategy.

 from the Class of 2023 than they did from the Class of 2022. But what many organizations still aren’t seeing is that a robust early talent strategy isn’t just about recent grads.

At Multiverse, our research has found that 

 who choose not to enroll in college do so because of financial reasons. That is a large pool of skilled talent hidden in plain sight.

While a college degree is often the first thing employers look for in an entry-level role, businesses and young professionals agree that it’s skills — not degrees — that deliver the greatest value to the workplace.

Here are five practical ways employers can level up their early career talent strategies through the transformative power of professional apprenticeships.

There’s a reason the number of job ads that do not require a degree 

 year over year. Even amid layoffs, the war for talent continues.

Companies have become more creative with their recruitment strategies, including the way they think about their early career programs. But unlike an 

internship or short-term training program

, professional apprenticeships can deliver skills development based on real day-to-day workflows in high-demand areas like software engineering and data analytics.

Here are a few ways a skills-first talent strategy can help you fill in-demand roles faster:

Increase the number of qualified candidates 

- skills-first hiring can increase speed of hiring 

 by making jobs formerly reserved for those with a degree accessible to a wider pool of talent.

who have an adaptive mindset and inherent tech knowledge to help fill tech roles faster.

 by hiring individuals who are already trained and equipped with the skills needed to succeed in a role.

 are beginning to see early careers as “an ecosystem of talent” — rather than a siloed cohort dedicated to generalized or low-impact tasks.

With the right program in place, professional apprenticeships can help you close critical skills gaps by training ambitious early talent to meet your hiring needs.

From inflated compensation packages to expensive agencies and contractors, securing tech talent can be costly. Apprenticeships offer a sustainable and ROI-friendly alternative to relying on expensive third-parties by helping you build internal experts.

And now is the time. In less than 10 years, up to 

 will retire, leaving a huge gap at the leadership level. Without a plan to actively help talent advance into those roles, you risk getting left behind.

Professional apprenticeships help you develop future leaders by enabling you to:

 through a build vs. buy approach in key tech, digital, and data roles.

opportunities when evaluating an open position.

 supported by regular upskilling and reskilling opportunities to help employees advance in their careers while preserving the bottom line as technology continues to evolve.

 are already paving a new path forward, actively using apprenticeships to build in-house junior talent for key data, software engineering, and digital roles — without relying on expensive third parties.

3. Establish a culture of engagement from day one

The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and the new and troubling trend of employees 

 —  it’s clear employee disengagement has reached an 

Early career starters have entered the working world at a unique moment in HR history. In a world where business isn’t usual, it’s up to you to create an engaging early talent program to help meet them where they are.

Here are some of the ways professional apprenticeships help you build enthusiasm for learning from the start:

Integrate training into real day-to-day workflows

 so new capabilities can be immediately applied and recognized.

Create opportunities for ongoing career development conversations

 through personalized coaching and a clearly defined certified training curriculum.

 by aligning early talent around a shared mission to transform the business and remain future-ready.

Professional apprenticeships offer the best of digital and in-person learning, including built-in coaching and mentorship, and access to a community of peers to network and collaborate. This can have an important impact on 

, while driving your transformation initiatives forward.

4. Decrease time per task, increase agility

The number of software tools a single company uses has increased 

 in less than ten years, with the average organization currently using 110 applications. But does your workforce know how to make the most of those investments?

Professional apprenticeships help increase your agility by empowering leaders to:

building a culture of data from the entry level up.

as junior employees share the load of gathering and interpreting data.

across all levels of the organization to develop experts in every key role and function.

, we found that 8.5% of businesses' annual revenue is lost on average as a result of poor data literacy. Through direct training on real workflows, apprentices have been shown to deliver 

 in time spent unproductively, saving the equivalent of nearly six working weeks per year.

Investing in early talent with a malleable skill set 

 mindset can help you drive greater impact for years to come.

5. Increase representation in technical roles

 of the workforce have one. Representation is especially low in the tech sector, with women and people of color 

 in technical roles. By offering debt-free and paid positions in in-demand areas, apprenticeships help you increase diversity from the start.

86% of our current early-career apprentices

 identify as BIPOC and 56% have at least one indicator of socio-economic disadvantage.

Here are some of the ways early talent apprenticeships can help drive diversity:

Discover talent with a variety of skills and life experiences

 from another country, switched careers, or who — for whatever reason — decided college simply 

Provide access to programs that train in high-demand skills

 like software engineering, digital marketing, or data analytics, at no cost to the individual.

 partnering career starters with senior leaders who can support skills development and act as sponsors for promotions or merit increases.

Stop caring about where someone went to school 

and focus on a candidate’s ability to perform instead.

“Recruiting truly diverse talent, and bringing in people with different perspectives and a range of experiences is vital to the success of our business, but also enables us to develop future leaders and build critical skills for Citi,” 

, Senior Vice President and Apprenticeship Lead at Citi.

Hiring early talent based on potential, not the grades they got in school, isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also great for the business.

Across all Multiverse programs, we have tracked 

 in cost-saving or revenue-generating activities resulting from the work of our apprentices during their time in our programs. 69% of Multiverse apprentices gain new job responsibilities after they finish the program and over a third saw a salary increase between starting and finishing their apprenticeship.

Success at every level begins at the entry-level

Early talent development must be about more than graduate hiring and internships. Active skills training in specialized areas is the way forward for businesses looking to compete in a talent-tight, tech-driven climate.

With an open mind and a clear plan, you can level up your entire workforce starting at the entry-level.

At Multiverse, we partner with over 1,000 employers across the US and UK to identify the need for skills, design a program to systematically close skills gaps, and prepare your early talent cohort for lasting success in an increasingly digital climate

 with one of our specialists to learn more about our programs.

Talk to us

5 ways professional apprenticeships elevate your entry-level hiring

Two apprentices chat while looking at a screen together

Why we believe the future of learning is working

The four years of learning that traditional higher education provides is not enough to establish or sustain a multi-decade career.


This system is failing: people aren’t equipped with the right skills they need to thrive, and lacking the in-demand data and tech skills their employers so desperately need. It's making it hard to get a foot in the door, and impossible to progress in a meaningful career.


We believe the future of learning is working. That's why we're building something different. Real-world, on-the-job experience that happens throughout a career, not just at the start of it.

Traditional education has failed to keep up with the accelerating pace of change. 67% of business leaders don’t think higher education provides the skills needed for the workforce of tomorrow: leaving them with skills gaps that are costing time and money.


The current system doesn’t serve businesses — and it doesn’t serve everyone in society. Individuals from underrepresented backgrounds are facing barriers to secure highly in-demand tech, software engineering, and data roles due to a lack of equity and mobility in career advancement.

To unlock the full potential of our workforce, deliver on strategic goals for businesses, and in turn create a more equitable future, the traditional approach to learning needs to be reimagined.
At Multiverse, we believe the future of learning is working. 

That’s why we deliver professional apprenticeships that provide a more equitable and effective pathway to growth for individuals and organizations. A pathway where skills can be applied rapidly, in the real world.


You’re best placed to learn the skills you need for work, at work. You wouldn’t learn to ride a bike in a classroom, so we can’t keep expecting workers to learn everything they need in a textbook either.


Business leaders agree with us: 70% said that learning on the job was the most effective way to develop workforce skills.


Through apprenticeships, we can teach people in real-world settings, as they take on real projects — because active, in-context learning is the best way to set up employees for success.


Our approach helps top companies see potential where it’s often overlooked; open doors for high potential individuals, inside and outside of the company; and unlock future growth by closing their critical data, software engineering, and tech skills gaps.

Leaders back on-the-job learning: read our latest research

, we set out to understand how business leaders perceive the value of on-the-job learning, and how employers can harness its power in their hiring and skills development strategies.


We found leaders are twice as likely to prioritize durable skills over higher education achievements when assessing applicants for entry-level roles.


But despite this, almost half (48%) of respondents revealed that, when recruiting candidates for entry-level positions, their company still has degree requirements.


We’re calling on businesses to embrace a new approach, one that looks to a future that’s radically more equitable and successful. Professional apprenticeships train the next generation of leaders through the transformative power of real work experience. 

Download our full report and learn more about our findings here.

People socializing in a corworking space 

Finance jobs often show up on lists of the highest-paying and fastest-growing careers. However, there are many factors to consider when choosing a career. If you’re weighing your options, it’s reasonable to ask: Is finance a good career path?

Tech has transformed the finance industry and created many promising and lucrative careers that didn’t exist before.

This article will explore high-paying finance jobs and the skills you need to land them.

Many companies need employees with strong business and math skills. According to the 

 (BLS), business and finance job openings will increase by 7% between 2021 and 2031. During this decade, employers will create around 980,000 new job openings annually.

Companies in every industry need finance professionals. Many of these jobs exist outside of traditional financial institutions, such as banks and brokerage firms.

The most in-demand jobs in finance often come with high salaries. The BLS reports that business and finance professionals earn an 

Of course, salary ranges widely by job title and other factors. Some finance jobs pay substantially higher. For example, 

 make $100,000 yearly, on average. Financial Analysts earn $95,570.

Additionally, many finance careers provide generous benefits, such as commissions, employee stock options, parental leave, and on-site daycares and gyms. These perks can boost your long-term earnings and help you maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Working in finance can be an excellent career choice. Here are the top reasons why finance is a good career path:

In October-December of 2022, 29% of new 

 were remote. Many employers also allow hybrid work, so staff split their time working at the office and from home.

 A wide range of industries hire finance professionals for essential business needs. This can help recession-proof your career.

 As you develop experience and skills, you can pursue more advanced roles, such as Senior Financial Analyst or Senior Finance Executive.

If a finance career sounds right for you, you’ll need to gain relevant hard skills to make a strong impression on potential employers, including:

 Many organizations use data, such as cash flow and depreciation, to forecast future economic performance and make business decisions.

 Finance professionals often use Microsoft Excel to manage data, make financial models, and create data visualizations.

, Structured Query Language, and use it to clean and organize large datasets. It’s one of the 

 because you’ll use it to organize and work with financial data.

 A solid understanding of economics, probability, and statistics will help you interpret data.

 If you want to work as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), you’ll need to learn accounting. You’ll also prepare financial statements and tax returns with accounting software.

Finance professionals also need soft skills to navigate complex situations and interact effectively with clients and colleagues. Some of the most useful soft skills to master include:

Quickly interpret data, evaluate risks, and make strategic decisions.

 Make deals and decisions that balance the needs of the organization, clients, and stakeholders.

 Develop innovative and practical solutions to complicated problems like budget crises and fraud.

 Explain abstract financial concepts to non-experts or effectively communicate relevant projects to stakeholders.

Some finance jobs like CPAs (Certified Public Accountants) must pass an exam and earn a license to practice. But, many don’t require a Bachelor’s degree, so you could start working sooner, without the high cost of college.

Here are eight in-demand careers, ranging from senior to entry-level finance jobs, and their salaries (

Financial Analysts typically have excellent 

. A Financial Analyst uses data to evaluate an organization’s financial performance and suggest improvements to increase profits.

For instance, they may assess a company’s portfolio and recommend new investment strategies. Other responsibilities include building financial models and writing reports for clients and executives.

 develops and manages software programs for the finance and banking industries. Financial Software Engineers may develop products like:

If you’re interested in building software for the finance industry, you can get started with Multiverse’s 

You’ll learn how to write code with programming languages like 

 and Python, develop accessible user interfaces, and test applications. Even better, Multiverse apprentices often work at Fortune 500 companies and earn a full-time salary while learning on-the-job. 

A Quantitative Analyst uses math, statistics, and data models to help organizations make strategic investments. They gather and analyze financial data to detect patterns and identify risks. Based on their findings, they predict how financial markets and investments will perform in the future.

Quantitative Analysts often work for hedge funds, tech companies, insurance providers, and investment banks.

A Personal Financial Advisor provides customized guidance to individuals to help them manage their money. Clients consult with a Financial Advisor to set and adjust financial goals throughout their life. For example, an Advisor might create personal budgets, advise on investments or loans, or help clients save for retirement.

A Financial Manager helps organizations develop and meet short and long-term goals. They oversee a company’s financial health and operations. Responsibilities may include:

Delivering presentations to share insights

Developing your soft skills can help you advance to a role as a Financial Manager. You’ll need problem-solving abilities to detect and resolve issues like cash flow challenges and inefficient workflows. And, good communication skills will be essential when presenting solutions to business problems.

The below finance careers are harder to break into due to more strict education requirements and high competition.

A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) typically helps businesses improve their financial health, complete accounting, and file taxes. Although many CPAs specialize in taxes, some conduct financial audits and create financial statements.

CPAs must pass the Uniform CPA exam to practice accounting. To take the exam, you’ll need hours of approved training and work experience.

An Investment Banking Analyst finds and negotiates new investment opportunities for clients. They facilitate various transactions between companies and organizations, such as initial public offerings (IPOs) and mergers and acquisitions.

Investment Banking Analyst roles are highly competitive, so it’s one of the hardest to break into without a degree and connections.

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Multiverse in the press

Our recent announcements

Future of financial services: New report on skills in the sector

Introducing Multiverse Degrees

Jaguar Land Rover joins forces with Multiverse to deliver data skills training to employees

About Multiverse

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