The six specialisms

Every DTS apprentice covers a common core, then follows one of six options defined in the standard. The option shapes your later modules, your workplace role and your end-point assessment project — it is effectively the career track you graduate into.

Two honest notes before the list. First, the employer usually decides — most vacancies are hired into a specific team, so the advert has often already chosen your option; ask at interview if it isn't stated. Second, universities differ in which options they run and how much genuinely changes between them before the final year — the core is most of the programme. Neither of these is a problem; both are worth knowing going in.

Software Engineer Software engineering professional

Designs, builds, tests and ships software — web applications, services, APIs, internal tools. The most common option by some distance, and the one with the clearest straight-line career path afterwards.

The day job: Writing and reviewing code on a delivery team, building features, fixing bugs, writing tests, deploying, and slowly taking on design decisions as you get more senior.

Suits you if: You like building things and want the deepest technical route. Most employers hiring a generic “digital degree apprentice” mean this.

IT Consultant IT consultant professional

Works with clients — internal or external — to understand problems and shape technology solutions. Sits between the technical teams and the business.

The day job: Requirements workshops, solution options papers, stakeholder management, some hands-on configuration or prototyping, a lot of communicating.

Suits you if: You want breadth over depth, you're comfortable presenting, and the people side of technology appeals as much as the code.

Business Analyst Business analyst professional

Investigates how the business works, models its processes and data, and defines the requirements that development teams build against.

The day job: Process mapping, requirements elicitation and documentation, user stories, acceptance criteria, bridging users and engineers on a delivery team.

Suits you if: You're analytical and organised, you like understanding systems end-to-end, and you'd rather define the right thing than build it.

Cyber Security Specialist Cyber security professional

Protects the organisation's systems and data: finding vulnerabilities, designing controls, monitoring threats and responding to incidents.

The day job: Security assessments, threat modelling, secure-design reviews, monitoring and incident work, and translating risk into language the business acts on.

Suits you if: You like the adversarial puzzle of security and can be trusted with the keys. Demand comfortably exceeds supply of people who can do this well.

Data Analyst Computing data analyst professional

Collects, models and analyses data to answer business questions — the option closest to the data science career track.

The day job: SQL and analysis pipelines, dashboards and reporting, data quality work, presenting findings that change decisions.

Suits you if: You like evidence and statistics, and want a technical role where the output is insight rather than software.

Network Engineer Network engineering professional

Designs, builds and operates the networks and infrastructure everything else runs on — increasingly cloud as well as physical.

The day job: Network design and configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting, infrastructure projects, security hardening with the cyber team.

Suits you if: You want to understand how it all actually connects, enjoy operational work, and like being the person who fixes what nobody else can see.

Choosing

If you're choosing freely: pick the work you want to be doing at 9am on a wet Tuesday in year three, not the one with the best-sounding title. All six lead to the same degree and the same ST0119 apprenticeship certificate — the option is named on your EPA, but employers after graduation care far more about the four years of experience than the option label. And the tracks cross-pollinate: I followed the software route and still spent a year of modules on security, data and business analysis.

Option names from the official ST0119 standard; typical job titles for the standard: Business analyst, Computing data analyst, Cyber security professional, It consultant, Network engineer, Software engineer. Descriptions and advice are this site's own.