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When you think of building architects, you tend to think of people in posh offices commanding enormous fees for their services ... but those fees pale into insignificance compared to those enjoyed by 'network architects' and all kinds of other IT professionals. On the other side of the Atlantic, over in Silicon Valley, it's not uncommon for applications designers and architects to earn over a hundred thousand dollars a year, and since smartphone apps are the flavour of the month, anyone who got in on the ground floor right at the beginning is earning serious money - very serious money. And an IT apprenticeship is definitely one way of getting into a high-earning position in an industry that seems to be awash with money.

Currently worth a staggering 81 billion, the UK IT market is in a constant state of expansion, with an ever-increasing effect on our working and social lives. Technology will continue to march forward, but you don't have to be on the bleeding edge of it to earn yourself a decent salary: after all, somebody's got to keep existing systems working properly.

And with the number of existing systems, that all adds up to a lot of very well-paid vacancies for people with the knowledge and skill to keep the IT wheels of industry turning. IT management ranked 14th out of the top 100 best paid jobs in the UK last year, paying an average an annual salary of 47,000.

But there's a lot more to working in IT than designing new systems and keeping the old ones running. Millions upon millions of bytes of personal data flood into companies' systems every day. And somebody has to look after all that data and make sure it's stored legally and safely. Security comes at a premium for both the public and private sector meaning that data security management is a very lucrative career... and very much sought after.

Is it any wonder, then, that one of the most popular - even oversubscribed - university degree subjects is information technology? If you're lucky enough to get accepted on a course, that's good news. But what isn't good news is the size of the student loan hanging over your head afterwards. A much better alternative would be to gain the qualifications and work experience employers are looking for by undertaking an IT apprenticeship. You'd have the time to create a network of contacts to approach once your training has finished... you'd be paid throughout your apprenticeship... and you'd have no student loan to worry about.