Academic year 2022/23

Apprenticeships and traineeships

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See all updates (3) for Academic year 2022/23
  1. Updated with monthly starts for the first four months of 2022/23

  2. Updated to clarify wording around interactive data visualisation tool

  3. Updated to add links to the interactive data visualisation tool

Introduction

February 2023 update

This transparency update adds additional data on monthly apprenticeship starts in the ‘Latest Apprenticeships in year data’ section to cover the period August to November 2022. 

January 2023 initial release

This release shows provisional in-year data on apprenticeships and traineeships in England for the first quarter of the 2022/23 academic year (August to October 2022). This also includes apprenticeship service commitments data, and Find an apprenticeship data for August to December 2022.

Changes to the structure of the release

We have changed the structure of the release to improve user access to content and to allow for easier maintenance. The same amount of data is still being published on a quarterly basis. If you wish to provide feedback on these changes please contact us at FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk.

As announced in November we are changing the content of the monthly updates in between the quarterly updates. Specifically, this includes February, April, May, June, August, September and October.

We will continue to update the two existing apprenticeship starts files along with some narrative within the latest apprenticeships in year data accordion.

All other data previously published monthly, such as that covering the apprenticeship service and find an apprenticeship, will be updated in the quarterly releases (March, July, and November). 

Impact of COVID-19 on reporting of FE and apprenticeship data

Historic data in this release covers periods affected by varying COVID-19 restrictions, which impacted on apprenticeship and traineeship learning and also provider reporting behaviour via the Individualised Learner Record. Therefore, extra care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data presented in this release.

Please note that the ‘Explore data and files’ section contains the underlying files that underpin this release and allows expert users to interrogate and analyse the data for themselves. For pre-populated summary statistics please see the relevant section underneath, from which the data can be further explored using the ‘Explore data’ functionality. You can also view featured tables or create your own table using the ‘create tables' functionality.


Headline facts and figures - 2022/23

Figures for the 2022/23 academic year show:

  • Apprenticeship starts were down by 6.1% to 122,290 compared to 130,240 reported for the same period in the previous year. 
  • Under 19s accounted for 31.5% of starts (38,480).
  • Advanced apprenticeships accounted for 41.8% of starts (51,080) whilst higher apprenticeships accounted for over a third of starts (34.4% or 42,060). 
  • Higher apprenticeships continue to grow in 2022/23. Higher apprenticeship starts increased by 10.0% to 42,060 compared to 38,230 in the same period last year.
  • Starts at Level 6 and 7 increased by 14.0% to 22,060 in 2022/23. This represents 18.0% of all starts reported to date for 2022/23. There were 19,360 Level 6 and 7 starts in the same period last year (14.9% of starts in the same period).
  • Starts supported by Apprenticeship Service Account (ASA) levy funds accounted for 60.6% (74,100).
  • Since May 2015 there have been 3,004,140 apprenticeship starts. Since May 2010 this total stands at 5,381,680.
  • Apprenticeship achievements increased by 16.7% to 30,650 compared to 26,270 reported for the same period in the previous year. Please note: COVID-19 restrictions and assessment flexibilities affected the timing of achievements, therefore care must be taken when comparing achievements between years as some achievements expected in a given academic year may have been delayed to the subsequent year.
  • Learner participation increased by 2.9% to 572,210 compared to 555,890 reported for the same period in the previous year. 

Explore data and files

All data used in this release is available as open data for download


Open data

Browse and download individual open data files from this release in our data catalogue


Guidance

Learn more about the data files used in this release using our online guidance


Create your own tables

You can view featured tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from the open data using our table tool


All supporting files

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

List of all supporting files

About these statistics

This statistical release presents provisional information on all age (16+) apprenticeships starts, achievements and participation in England for the 2022/23 academic year.

Also published are official statistics covering:

  • Apprenticeship service commitments, registrations, and reservations
  • Employers reporting the withdrawal of apprentices due to redundancy
  • Adverts and vacancies as reported on the Find an apprenticeship website

A separate release covers overall further education and skills data, please see ‘Further education and skills’. Please note that the FE and skills release includes the adult apprenticeships and traineeships published here in its headline figures.

Individualised Learner Record (ILR) administrative data

The apprenticeship data in this release are based on the fourth ILR data return from FE and apprenticeship providers for the 2022/23 academic year, which was taken in December 2022. The ILR is an administrative data collection system designed primarily for operational use in order to fund training providers for learners in FE and on apprenticeship programmes.

National achievement rate tables data

Figures in the ‘national achievement rate tables’ section are as published in March 2022. These official statistics cover achievement rates for apprenticeships in the 2020/21 academic year and would have been previously released as part of the standalone National achievement rate tables publication. As confirmed in our guidance, due to Coronavirus (COVID-19), we have not published institution-level qualification achievement rates (QARs) in the national achievement rate tables for 2019/20 or 2020/21 academic years. We have published high level summaries of QARs for statistical purposes. 

Achievement rates covering the 2021/22 academic year are planned to be published as part of our March 2023 statistics update.

Provider reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Historic data in this publication covers periods affected by varying COVID-19 restrictions, which will have impacted on apprenticeship and traineeship learning. Therefore, extra care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data presented in this release.

The furlough scheme may also have impacted on how aspects of ILR data were recorded, such as how the ‘learning status’ of a learner was captured, e.g. whether a learner was recorded as a continuing learner or whether they were recorded as being on a break in learning while still being with an employer.

How to find data and supplementary tables in this release

The Apprenticeships and traineeships publication still provides the same range of data it always did, but has undergone some structural changes since the previous publication in order to improve user’s experience. 

We have also adopted a new naming convention for files to help users find their data of interest. We have not changed the content of these files except in a few cases where we have merged some smaller files. You can find a look-up of the old and new file names in the file called “New Release Layout - Names Lookup” that can be found by clicking 'Explore data and files' and opening the ‘all supporting files’ section.

This section serves to signpost users to the data most relevant to their uses by detailing the routes through which it can be accessed. 

The content of the publication below contains charts and tables which highlight key figures and trends that give an overview of the national picture of the apprenticeship and traineeship landscape.

'Featured tables' provide further detail with figures broken down by common areas of interest. These can be found by expanding the 'Explore data and files' accordion and clicking 'Create tables'. These tables are created to provide the next level of detail one might wish to find below the level of detail provided by tables embedded within the release.  They also provide the user the opportunity to then amend content, reorder and take away to meet their needs.  Within the release we list out the most relevant featured tables at the end of each commentary section.

In addition to featured tables you can also access underlying data files and build your own tables using the table builder tool. For example, the featured table showing enrolments by provider is produced from an underlying data file which also contains detail on the level of an aim, and it's sector subject area.

The list of files available can be accessed by expanding the 'Explore data and files' accordion and clicking either ‘browse data files’ or 'Create tables', then switching to the 'Create your own table' tab and selecting your file of interest.

Alternatively you can modify and existing featured table by selecting it and then depending on the breakdowns available, edit the location, time periods, indicators and/or filters (Steps 3, 4 and 5).

There is a dashboard that provides interactive presentation of our published data, with a number of different views on to data and ‘drilldown’ capability to allow users to investigate different types of FE provision.  It is particularly helpful in viewing data across different geographical areas and providers.

This release also provides ‘all supporting files’ which can be found at the end of the 'Explore data and files' accordion. These are mainly csv files which can be downloaded, and provide some additional breakdowns including unrounded data.  They are provided for transparency to enable analysts to re-use the data in this release. A metadata document is available in the same location which explains the content of these supporting files.

All of the data available in this release can be downloaded using the 'Download all data (zip)' button at the top right of this page.

Feedback

This release is a structural change to how we publish our data and statistics, which we continually look to improve. As a result, your feedback is important to help us further improve and develop. To provide feedback on this release, please email us at FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk

Full year Apprenticeships data

The figures in this section relate to full-year final data up to and including the 2021/22 academic year and were originally  published in November 2022

History of apprenticeship participation

Adult participation 

Participation in apprenticeships by those aged 19+ in 2021/22 was 613,900 – an increase of 3.3% on the 2020/21 figure of 594,400. 

Putting those figures into context, the total number of adults participating in all further education and skills was just over 1.7 million in 2021/22.

All age apprenticeship participation by level

There was a steady decline in total participation between 2016/17 and 2020/21 with learner numbers falling by over a fifth from 908,700 to 713,000. 

In the same period, starts have fallen by a third - a faster rate than seen for participation. Factors driving this are that the overall length of apprenticeships has increased with the introduction of standards, and the decline of over 60% in intermediate apprentices and an increase of around 240% in higher apprenticeships, which typically take twice as long to complete.  

Total participation figures for 2021/22 show an increase of 3.8% to 740,400 compared to 2020/21, though intermediate level continued to decline. At higher levels, participation has risen year-on-year.

Subject, Level and Age

Final figures reported to the end of 2021/22 show:

  • The 349,200 starts reported for the 2021/22 academic year are 8.6% higher than the 321,400 reported for 2020/21, are 8.3% higher than the 322,500 reported for 2019/20, and are 11.2% lower than the 393,400 reported for 2018/19.
  • Steady growth in higher level apprenticeships with starts at their highest volume and over five times higher than in 2014/15. Just under a third of all starts (30.5%) were at Level 4 and above compared to just 4.0% in 2014/15 
  • Starts in degree-level apprenticeships (level 6 and 7) have grown to 43,200 – representing 12.4% of all starts in 2021/22. 
  • Starts at level 6 and 7 grew by 10.3% from 39,200 the previous year and were almost four-times greater than in 2017/18, where they represented only 2.9% of all starts.
  • The share of starts for Under 19s was 22.2% compared to 30.5% for 19-24 year olds and 47.4% for those aged 25+.
  • Starts have increased for all age-groups compared to 2020/21, but Under 19s have seen the largest rise – a 19% increase compared to 12.4% for 19-24s and 2.3% for those aged 25+. Prior to 2021/22, starts by under 19s had seen the steepest decline – reducing by about half since 2015/16 compared to 38.5% for 19-24s and 27.8% for 25+. 2017/18 saw the largest single-year decline in starts for an age-group. Starts by those aged 25+ fell by a third compared to 2016/17.
  • Science, technology engineering and maths (STEM)  subjects accounted for 28.2% of starts – an increase from 24.3% in the previous year. 2020/21 did see a disproportionately large drop in starts for STEM subjects – falling by 15.4% compared to 2019/20 while non-STEM grew by 5.7%. 
  • Health, public services and care has taken over as the most popular tier 1 subject area (28.6% of starts), overtaking Business, Administration and Law (26.9%).  Both these subject areas have seen a decline in overall share of starts since 2020/21 but the reduction in Business has been larger.
  • Engineering apprenticeships have seen their share of starts increase the most in the last year after a seeing a large decline in 2020/21. Business, Administration and Law is the subject area that has declined the most since 2018/19 having nearly 25,000 fewer starts in that time.

Apprenticeship achievements 

The 137,200 achievements reported for the 2021/22 academic year are 12.3% lower than the 156,500 reported for 2020/21, and are 25.9% lower than the 185,100 reported in 2018/19.

Levy

Total starts supported by ASA levy funds were 225,600; this accounts for around two-thirds (64.6%) of all starts. Please see About these statistics for more information about ASA levy funds.

Length of employment

The large majority of apprenticeship starts are either by new employees with up to 3 months service or established employees who have been employed for more than 12 months. In 2014/15 there was a relatively even split between these groups (around 41% of starts in each). The trend has shifted to proportionally more newer employees starting apprenticeships. In 2021/22, apprentices employed for up to 3 months accounted for 48.4% of starts where length of employment was known, compared to 35.9% who had been employed for more than a year .  

Expected Duration

The expected duration of an apprenticeship is the difference between the associated start date and planned end date as recorded in the ILR.

Final figures show that the average expected duration of an apprenticeship:

  • increased from 406 days in 2011/12 to 623 days in 2021/22
  • increased by 2.1% in the last year - from 610 days in 2020/21 to 623 days in 2021/22 
  • is significantly higher for level 6 and 7 apprenticeships. The increased uptake at these levels will have contributed to the overall increase in planned duration   

Ethnicity

Starts by learners from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) as a proportion of all starts have increased year-on-year to 14.7% in 2021/22. 

Since 2017/18, the growth in Asian learners has outpaced other ethnic minority groups with a 28.0% increase in starts compared to 22.4% for mixed/multiple ethnic groups and 10% for Black learners. 

Sex

Females accounted for 50.8% of starts in 2021/22. This share has fluctuated in recent years with a high of 53.4% in 2020/21, preceded by a low of 48.8% in 2019/20.  

Learning Difficulties 

Apprentices declaring a learning difficulty or disability accounted for 14% of starts in 2021/22. This proportion has risen steadily from 10.1% in 2015/16 .

Region

London and the South East are the only two regions to show an increased number of starts compared to 2017/18. However,  accounting for population size in each region, London has the lowest rates of starts, participation and achievements. The North East and South West have the highest rates for these measures.

Apprenticeship starts, participation and achievement rates per population are also available at local authority district (LAD) level available via the ‘Explore data’ button in the map above. In these statistics, rates for Richmondshire are significantly higher than in other areas. This is due to the location of Catterick Garrison within its boundary and the high prevalence of apprenticeships in the British Army.

Provider Type

Private sector, public funded providers were responsible for around two-thirds of starts (65.2%) in 2021/22. This is slightly higher than the share of starts in these providers in 2018/19 (63.3%). Over the same period the share of starts in general FE colleges fell from 23.7% in 2018/19 to 18.7% in 2021/22.

Additional featured tables

The following tables offer more detailed breakdowns and combinations of characteristics and are available in our  table builder tool :

Headline full year comparisons - starts by age 2015/16 to 2021/22 
Headline full year comparisons - starts by age and level 2015/16 to 2021/22 
Headline full year comparisons - starts by level 2015/16 to 2021/22 
Headline full year comparisons - achievements by level 2015/16 to 2021/22

Geographical learner characteristics - ethnicity, sex, level and sector subject area 
Geographical learner characteristics - sex, level and age
Geographical - starts since 2010

Learner characteristics by detailed learning difficulty/learner disability 
Learner characteristics by funding type 
Learner characteristics by IMD quintile (participation) 
Learner characteristics by IMD quintile (starts) 
Learner characteristics by length of employment 
Learner characteristics by sex, ethnicity, age group, LLDD 

Provider starts and achievements 

Subjects - showing individual frameworks and standards 
Subjects - showing learner sex 
Subjects - showing split between frameworks and standards 

Full year Traineeships data

The figures in this section relate to full-year final data up to and including the 2021/22 academic year and were originally  published in November 2022.

Traineeships are designed to be a stepping-stone to either an apprenticeship, or other work. They were introduced in the 2013/14 academic year to equip young people with work preparation/experience and basic skills. Young people aged up to and including 24 are eligible for traineeships.  

Traineeship starts

There were 15,500 traineeship starts recorded in the 2021/22 academic year – a decrease of 11.1% from 2020/21. Compared to 2018/19, starts are up by 4.1%.

Of these 15,500 starts:

  • Trainees aged under 19 accounted for 61.0% (9,400)
  • Females accounted for 40.6% (6,300) 
  • Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) represented 35.9% (5,500)
  • Learners declaring a learning difficulty and/or disability (LLDD) accounted for  26.6% (4,000)

Region

The North West and London had the highest number of traineeship starts in 2021/22.

Completion rates and conversions into apprenticeship starts

Completion rates

Of the 17,400 traineeships started in the 2020/21 academic year:

  • the completion rate was 75.1% - a fall of 1.8 percentage points on the rate for those started in 2019/20 and an increase on the provisional rate of 71.6% published in March 2022
  • the number completed under flexible arrangements (with a duration of greater than 6 months) was 1,700 (representing 13.2% of completions) – a rise of 1,200 over the previous year

Of the 15,500 starts in 2021/22:

  • the provisional number completed under flexible arrangements (with a duration greater than 6 months) and reported so far was 900 – around half as many as the previous year. 
  • 9,000 were started in the first two quarters of 2021/22 and have a provisional completion rate of 79.1%. 

Note: Some completions arising from 2021/22 traineeship starts will not be picked up until the 2022/23 academic year. Final figures will not be confirmed until November 2023.

Conversion into apprenticeship starts

Of the 17,400 traineeships started in the 2020/21 academic year:

  • the proportion that led to an apprenticeship start before the end of 2021/22 was 20.6% - 1.7 percentage points higher than the previous year. This figure will be revised – see note below

Note: the conversion measure counts the first apprenticeship starts that occurs within a year (four ILR quarters) of the traineeship start. For any traineeship completion where the duration of the traineeship was greater than 6 months, an additional 6-month period has been allowed to register an apprenticeship start. As such, the latest conversion rate will be revised in future releases to include any further qualifying apprenticeship starts during 2022/23. 

Traineeships incentive payments 

The government introduced a new incentive payment in September 2020 to support employers who host a work placement experience as part of the Traineeship programme from 1st September 2020 up to 31st July 2022. Employers are eligible to apply for this incentive if the work placement lasts a minimum of 70 hours and is delivered, as a minimum, over a 10-working day duration. The incentive payment can be claimed using an online claim form and can only be claimed once the work placement has been completed and eligibility has been confirmed by the training provider.

Employers can claim £1,000 for each placement that is hosted; this is capped at 10 placements per region across the 9 English regions in any one academic year.

Further information on the incentive, the claims process and the regions can be found on .GOV: Traineeship employer incentive registration form

For incentive payments made up to 13 January 2023:

  • The number of traineeship incentives paid has been 6,560.
  • The number of unique organisations receiving a payment has been 2,894.
  • The number of unique learners who have received an incentive payment for an employer has been 6,424.

Note that one learner can generate more than one payment if they attend more than one placement at one or more employers. Each employer will then be able to claim a £1000 payment.

While the incentive programme ended on the 31st July 2022 and new claims should not be made, a number of unprocessed claims remain in the system. We will update these payment figures in the next quarterly release.

Additional featured tables

The following tables offer more detailed breakdowns and combinations of characteristics and are available in our  table builder tool :

Traineeship starts by provider 
Traineeship starts, completions and conversion rates

Latest Apprenticeships in year data

Latest updated starts as reported in February 

The commentary and first chart/table below provide the latest starts data reported by providers covering the period August to November.  Latest data will always be incomplete to some degree, especially for the latest month reported, as providers continue to update their records.  For these monthly updates we only provide a small update on starts between our fuller updates for which the latest (continuing in rest of this section below) covers August to October as reported in December.

The 155,900 starts reported to date for the first four months of the 2022/23 academic year (August to November) are 5.1% lower than the 164,300 reported at the same point in the previous year.

Month by month breakdown

The starts in August and September 2022 (18,000 and 69,400) are lower than those reported at the same period in 2021 (14.6% and 11.7% lower respectively).  

The 39,700 starts for October 2022 are 15.4% higher than the 34,400 that was reported at the same point for October 2021.

The 28,800 starts reported for November 2022 are 4.5% lower than the 30,200 reported for November 2021 at this point of the year. 

An additional supporting file is available to show more detail for monthly apprenticeship starts. Please see the file named ‘Underlying data - apprenticeship monthly starts' in the Explore data and files section.

 

The figures in the following section were published in January 2023 and cover the first three months (August to October 2022) of the 2022/23 academic year:

  • Apprenticeship starts were down by 6.1% to 122,290 compared to 130,240 reported for the same period in the previous year.
  • Learner participation increased by 2.9% to 572,210 compared to 555,890 reported for the same period in the previous year.
  • Higher apprenticeships continue to grow in 2022/23. Higher apprenticeship starts increased by 10.0% to 42,060 compared to 38,230 in the same period last year.
  • Starts at Level 6 and 7 increased by 14.0% to 22,060 in 2022/23. This represents 18.0% of all starts reported to date for 2022/23. There were 19,360 Level 6 and 7 starts in the same period last year (14.9% of starts in the same period).

 

Additional featured tables

The following tables offer more detailed breakdowns and combinations of characteristics and are available in our  table builder tool :

Headline in year comparisons by age 
Headline in year comparisons by funding type 
Headline in year comparisons by level 
Headline in year comparisons by provider type and funding type

Subjects - in year comparisons

Geographical learner characteristics - ethnicity, sex, level and sector subject area

Latest Traineeships in year data

In the latest figures covering the 2022/23 academic year:

  • Traineeship starts were down by 17.0% to 4,600 compared to 5,600 reported for the same period in the previous year. 

Interactive data visualisation tool

data visualisation tool has been developed to complement the apprenticeship and traineeship release in EES. 

This approach offers users a more visual, interactive presentation of our published data, with a number of different views on to data and ‘drilldown’ capability to allow users to investigate different types of FE provision within different geographical areas and across providers.

National achievement rate tables

Data in this section refers to 2020/21 and was first published in March 2022. Data for 2021/22 is planned to be released in March 2023.

In March 2020, the Secretary of State announced that the summer 2020 exam series in England would be cancelled to help fight the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). This announcement also stated that Government will not publish any school, college or provider-level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for the 2019/20 academic year. 

In February 2021, given the continued disruption, it was confirmed this would also be the case for the 2020/21 academic year. As a consequence of the disruption to the assessment process, the government announced a change to its accountability arrangements published here where it states providers will not be held to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from summer 2020. This release will therefore not contain any provider level data.

For performance management purposes users should refer to data from 2018/19 which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-achievement-rates-tables-2018-to-2019

Headline facts and figures

The overall apprenticeship achievement rate has seen an increase of 0.2 percentage points between 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Changes in achievement rates are dependent on a combination of retention rates and pass rates. Pass rates have increased by 0.2 percentage points between 2019/20 and 2020/21 whilst retention rates have increased by 0.1 percentage points.

The apprenticeship achievement rate measure is additionally reliant on the persons continued employment and in some sectors there is higher churn so caution should be used interpreting simple averages because changes in provision mix across sectors will lead to change in overall averages. 

Things you need to know about this release

Correction to 2019/20 achievement rates

Please note we include achievement rate data on a three-year basis using a pooled dataset made up of six years' worth of data. 2019/20 was originally published in March 2021 and as previously announced was removed in February 2022 due to an error in the calculations. See the methodology section for further details.

Care should be taken when comparing outcomes with previous years. 

The purpose of releasing this achievement rate data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 is to maintain the continuity of information and to provide context alongside the achievement volumes found elsewhere in this publication. It is important to maintain transparency by presenting the national level data for this cohort of learners whilst recognising the extraordinary circumstances under which apprenticeships were completed in 2019/20 and 2020/21, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Covid-19 impact

Different sectors have been affected in different ways and as a result the 2019/20 and 2020/21 data should not be directly compared to data from previous years.

1 Impact of the pandemic on apprenticeship achievement rates

Care should be taken when comparing with previous years due to the effects of the pandemic. A number of things will have impacted the data. For example there was an increase in the number of breaks in learning which meant learners being reported in a different year to the one in which they were expected to complete. In 2018/19 only 6,000 learners were carried forward whereas 24,000 and 28,000 were carried forward in 2019/20 and 2020/21 respectively. 

In terms of the number of learners recorded as being on a break in learning, the data show an increase from 28,100 in 2018/19 to 77,500 in 2019/20. 2020/21 shows 42,300. Withdrawals were not impacted so much with data showing a decrease from 127,200 in 2018/19 to 117,100 in 2019/20. For 2020/21 there were 117,700 withdrawals recorded. 

At the end of the 2019/20 academic year there were a total of 54,500 records where the learning was expected to have ended but the outcome was unknown. Looking at the final data return for 2020/21 we can now confirm that 42,700 of those now have a known outcome, 7,300 are recorded as continuing learning, and 2,200 have completed learning with the outcome as yet unknown. Of those with a known outcome 32,100 (75.1%) have achieved. The majority (30,600) have an achievement date which falls in the 2020/21 academic year rather than their original planned end date of 2019/20.

For the 2020/21 QAR reporting year we can observe 53,900 additional learners who were expected to have ended in a previous year but have now come into scope for the 2020/21 statistics. This represents 19.6% of all learners in the cohort for 2020/21. Of those 35,700 (66.2%) are marked as having achieved. In contrast there are 28,000 learners who were planned to have completed by 2020/21 but who are marked as continuing. They have fallen out of scope for 2020/21 and will be included in a future publication.

2 Impact of the pandemic on data collection

Additionally the methodology for creating achievement rates has been partially affected in two ways. Firstly, the announcement that Government will not publish any provider level educational performance data for the 2019/20 or 2020/21 academic years. Therefore we did not share any provider level data with providers for 2019/20 which normally helps them to improve the quality of their final data return. Secondly, this limited the fuller quality assurance processes including working closely with providers on anomalies in their data. Whilst we were able to re-introduce the fuller QA process for the 2020/21 data, we are aware that providers were still affected by disruption due to the COVID pandemic.

Apprenticeships overall achievement rates by sector subject area

The mix of achievement rates across each sector subject area can be found to vary which can affect the national average, where figures could be found to be misleading. 

Health, Public Services and Care has shown the largest percentage point increase in achievement rate (+4.3) between 2019/20 and 2020/21, followed by Leisure, Travel and Tourism (+4.0).

Education and Training has shown the largest decrease (-9.4) with Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies having the next largest decrease (-5.9). 

Impact of the transition from Frameworks to Standards 

When looking at achievement rates it is important to consider the impact of programme change in the nature of the provision resulting from the transition of frameworks to standards. Standards are designed to be more demanding than traditional frameworks. The assessment process is also more rigorous with a specific end point assessment phase following completion of training designed to ensure the apprentice is ready to do the job they have been trained for. In 2018/19 the proportion of learners on standards stood at 18.5% whilst for 2019/20 the proportion had increased to 46.3%. For 2020/21 the proportion has now reached 65.9%.

Apprenticeships overall achievement rates for frameworks and standards

The gap between frameworks and standards has reduced significantly since last year. The achievement rate for apprenticeship standards increased by 6.6 percentage points. The achievement rate for apprenticeship frameworks increased by 0.8 percentage points. The proportion of learners on frameworks and standards has changed significantly since last year with more learners now on standards for the first time. 

An explanatory note is available alongside this release to show more detail for apprenticeship standards. Please see the ‘Explanatory Note On Apprenticeship Achievement Rates For Standards' supporting file in the Explore data and files section.

Apprenticeship achievement rates for individual standards and frameworks can be found in the ‘Apprenticeship Achievement Rates Standards and Frameworks’ supporting file in the Explore data and files section.

Please note that not all frameworks/standards are included to preserve provider anonymity. Any framework/standard with less than 30 leavers, or with 10 or less providers, or where one provider accounts for more than 60% of all leavers, has been removed. A list of frameworks/standards which have been removed can be found in the ‘Apprenticeship Achievement Rates Standards and Frameworks redactions’ supporting file in the Explore data and files section.

Overall apprenticeship achievement rates by ethnicity

The figures in this section cover the achievement rates for those learners who are from minority ethnic groups. Please note the figures for “White” include white minorities.

The following table covers overall apprenticeship achievement rates by ethnicity between 2018/19 and 2020/21.

Overall Apprenticeship Achievement Rates

2018/192019/202020/21
Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities)61.6%50.5%53.0%
White 65.7%58.6%58.5%

In 2020/21, learners from minority ethnic groups had an overall apprenticeship achievement rate of 53.0%, an increase of 2.5 percentage points from 50.5% in 2019/20 but a decrease of 8.6 percentage points since 2018/19. 

As is the case when looking into other learner attributes the variation in achievement rates by ethnicity is mainly driven by the mix of sector subject areas being undertaken. For 2020/21 this is driven by a large cohort volume of 10,900 for the Health, Public Services and Care sector (16.6% of all learners were from minority ethnic groups) and 10,910 for the Business, Administration and Law sector (12.8% of all learners were from minority ethnic groups) with overall achievement rates of 53.9% and 49.8% respectively. By comparison, only 7.5% of learners in the Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies sector were from minority ethnic groups.

The sector with the highest achievement rate for learners from minority ethnic groups learners was Leisure, Travel and Tourism with 70.3%. The lowest achievement rate was for the Retail and Commercial Enterprise sector with 47.3%.

Apprenticeship overall achievement rates by detailed level

Achievement rates at levels 3, 4 and 5 increased in 2020/21 when compared to 2019/20. Achievement rates decreased at levels 2, 6, and 7 with level 6 showing the largest decrease albeit from a low volume of learners. Compared to 2018/19, rates decreased at all levels except for level 7 though again this was from a low volume of learners.

UPDATED 11th August 2022 : Clarification regarding data for 2018/19 and 2019/20

Each year, when we publish NARTS, we release:

  • The latest year’s data, which is also used for any accountability purposes. (though note our restrictions on the use of data for these purposes during the pandemic period)
  • Updated figures relating to previous years’ NARTs (going back 2 years). Though this data may show small differences compared to what we previously published for accountability purposes, we include it for transparency and quality assurance processes to illustrate any impacts which the latest methodology may have had historically. They are not used for any accountability purposes.

We have conducted some analysis on historical figures relating to longer apprenticeship programmes, this has a small impact (please see table below) on national figures for the two preceding years to the 2020/21 year that would normally be used for any accountability purposes, but users should note the impact on the electrotechnical and engineering manufacture frameworks.

Impact of analysis on longer apprenticeships to quality assurance data for 2018/19 and 2019/20

The following table covers the impact of analysis on longer apprenticeships to quality assure data for 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Expected End Year

Achievement Rate

Estimated Impact

Revised Rate

2020/2157.7%                        no change
2019/2057.5%-0.1%57.4%
2018/1965.1%-0.3%64.8%

More detail on this analysis and its effect can be found in our methodology document under section 5 here.

To address this issue we are reviewing our future approach to showing re-cast historical data ahead of our next publication of achievement rates, which is provisionally scheduled for March 2023. That is when we are scheduled to publish provider level data to support the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework. We will only include provider level data for 2021/22 in line with the agreed approach to school and college accountability, performance tables and data during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as published here.

Traineeships

Positive destination rates have been calculated for Traineeships for the first time and are provided here for transparency. Users should note the caveats for these new rates that are based on provider information on destinations and how this compares with existing measures we publish in this release for traineeships on completions and conversion to apprenticeships and in the Outcome Based Success Measures release. 

Traineeship positive destination rates are produced to provide a measure of performance that is aligned to other QAR measures for apprenticeships and education and training. In common with other QARs they count the total number of learners who were due to complete in the given year (the denominator). However for Traineeship we determine an achievement (the numerator) as being activity where a positive destination is recorded in the Individualised Learner Record rather than a successful pass of the programme or qualification entered. 

Of the 13,550 traineeships who were expected to complete in 2020/21 we can observe 10,650 completions. 

The overall positive destination rate for Traineeships is 52.6% i.e. we can observe 7,120 positive destinations recorded from the 13,550 originally due to complete in 2020/21.

Of the 13,550 originally due to complete in 2020/21, 16.0% (2,170) are recorded with apprenticeship as the destination.

Points to note on how traineeships QARs are measured

The positive destinations method for traineeships is reliant on providers accurately being able to report destinations in the ILR. 52.6% were reported as going into employment or other forms of training including part time FE learning. A large number of traineeships, 47.4%, are currently reported with “not applicable” as their destination, and these are not counted as having a successful outcome. While many may not be applicable because they did not have a successful outcome, there will be cases where providers do not know the outcome and the learner did find employment or go into other learning. 

Additionally, the positive destinations method for this year has not accounted for flexibilities introduced because of COVID that extended the time Traineeships learners had to finish the programme which may have had some impact on the published rate.

Traineeship data is reported here for transparency with a view to prompting improvements in the recording of destinations and enabling a more representative rate in future.

Technical specifications for how achievement rates are calculated can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/qualification-achievement-rates-and-minimum-standards

Further information on Traineeship funding rules including how the performance management process works can be found here: ESFA funding for traineeships - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Points to note on how traineeship QARs compare with other data published

In the Traineeship section of this release we publish total starts and how many of these completed. This will vary from the QAR measure because this counts all starts observed in the year including those due to complete in the following year. This measure also allows for COVID flexibilities. 

In the Traineeship section of this release we also publish conversions to apprenticeships which for 2019/20 (and counting subsequent apprenticeship starts throughout 2020/21) were 18.8%. This is based on administrative data and takes all the known starts for a year and tracks any learner found in an apprenticeship in the following year. The QAR method only relies on what providers have captured directly or from a learner so this administrative measure is a more complete observation of who goes onto apprenticeships.

The Outcome Based Success Measures release uses the LEO dataset that brings together DfE, HMRC and DWP records to show positive outcomes over the October to March period after the year a learner completes. The latest data for 2018/19 completers shows 63% had a sustained positive outcome and a further 21% having a positive destination that was not sustained (which will include those doing shorter periods of further learning or employment).

Additional featured tables

The following tables offer more detailed breakdowns and combinations of characteristics and are available in our  table builder tool :

Apprenticeship achievement rates demographic summary 

Apprenticeship achievement rates by sector subject area and Ethnicity group learners

Apprenticeship achievement rates by sector subject area and gender

Apprenticeship achievement rates by sector subject area and learners with learning difficulty and or disability

Public sector target 2021-22

The following statistics are classified as official statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, rather than being classed as national statistics and approved as such by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority.

The public sector apprenticeship target

Public sector bodies in England with 250 or more staff had a target to employ an average of at least 2.3% of their staff as new apprentice starts over the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021. The target was repeated for the period April 2021 to March 2022, as a single-year stand-alone target. The scope and the target remained the same.
 

For further information about the scope of the target, and how it is measured, please see Meeting the public sector apprenticeship target 2021-22 and also Further education and skills statistics: methodology.

The latest figures in this section relate to the 2021-22 target and were originally published in November 2022.

Figures supplied by public sector bodies (up to and including 15 November 2022) suggest that in the single year target period (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022):

  • An average of 1.8% of employees started an apprenticeship. This is slightly higher than the 1.7% reported last year over the four years of the initial target period (1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021).
  • A combined total of 62,600 apprenticeship starts have been reported.
  • Apprentices are becoming increasingly popular in the public sector workforce. The percentage of employees who were apprentices rose from 3.2% to 3.5% during the latest 2021-22 period.
  • Apprenticeship starts by new and existing employees represent around one-tenth the volume of all employment starts in the public sector (10.6% in 2021-22).
  • Apprenticeship starts, as reported by organisations in scope of the target, represent 17% of all starts as recorded in the ILR between April 2021 and March 2022.

Sub-sectors

There is variation in the recruitment of apprentices in different parts of the public sector. During the one-year target:

The armed forces were by far the largest employer of apprentices with an average of 7.1% of employees starting an apprenticeship since April 2021.The police were next at 2.4%. Fire Authorities at 2.1% and the Civil Service, at 1.9% are just ahead of the national one-year average of 1.8%. Schools have the lowest rate of apprenticeship recruitment averaging at 1.1% since April 2021.

The Cabinet Office publish additional breakdowns of the Civil Service by each Department. The latest figures are published as transparency data on the Gov.UK website as the Civil Service public sector apprenticeship return 2021-2022.

School returns

State funded schools employing more than 250 staff and not maintained by a Local Authority (e.g. academies and academy trusts) came into scope of the public sector target from 31 March 2018.

Data from schools that have made a return in 2021-22 show:

  • 1.1% of employees have started an apprenticeship since 1 April 2021
  • 1.2% of all staff employed were apprentices on 31 March 2021, rising to 1.5% on 31 March 2022.

These data do not include schools where the local authority is the employer.

Wider schools estimate

It is not possible to report against the target for schools as a group. Instead, the number of apprenticeship starts in schools has been estimated using the ILR and school employment data. To calculate a schools estimate, Apprenticeship starts have been linked to Apprenticeship Service Account (ASA) names and cross-referenced with Get information about schools,  a register of schools and colleges in England to produce a mapping of school and academy trust accounts. Employer information has also been linked in to allow starts in local authority schools to be separated out from the linked ASA.

From the public sector return, there were 4,000 new apprentices reported in multi-academy trusts in 2021-22. There were approximately an additional 3,000 apprenticeship starts in schools administered by local authorities between April 2021 and March 2022.

Additional analysis and transparency data

The following statistics are classified as official statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, rather than being classed as national statistics and approved as such by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority. The statistics are included for transparency purposes. 

Apprenticeship adverts and vacancies (UPDATED 26 JANUARY 2023)

The apprenticeship adverts and vacancies in this section are a snapshot of Find An Apprenticeship (FAA), a digital system supporting apprenticeship advertisement and recruitment. They represent only a subset of the total number of vacancies available across the marketplace, as many apprenticeships are not advertised through this website.

There were 4,810 adverts comprising 10,640 vacancies on Find An Apprenticeship in December 2022.

The ‘Underlying data – apprenticeship vacancies’ file in the ‘Explore data and files’ section contains more information about the vacancies and adverts published on Find an apprenticeship. This file is updated alongside our quarterly releases. The current file was published in January 2023 and covers vacancies  from August 2018 to December 2022.

Find apprenticeship training 

For employers looking to take on apprentices, see find apprenticeship training. 

The service can be used to: 

  • Search for apprenticeship training by job role or keyword
  • Find training providers who offer the apprenticeship training you choose
  • Find a named training provider you want to use

Employers reporting the withdrawal of apprentices due to redundancy  (UPDATED 26 JANUARY 2023)

From 30 July 2020, employers have been able to record on the Apprenticeship Service (AS) if an apprenticeship has ended due to a redundancy. This will provide more accurate and timely data on redundancies than that captured via the ‘withdrawal reason’ on the ILR and will be a reliable ongoing source of data. 

Additionally, employers can record information about redundancies at a later date on the AS, therefore the information can suffer from ‘data lag’ with information being recorded weeks or months after the redundancy actually happened.

Additional information

To further support apprentices who have been made redundant, or who are at risk of redundancy, we have introduced the Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices (ReSSA).

Apprenticeship care leaver’s bursary payments, 2018/19 to 2022/23 (reported as at 13 December 2022)

Academic year

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23 (reported to date)

Number of bursary payments28032021035080

Additional Funding for Employers and Training Providers

In addition to the care leavers’ bursary, training providers and employers receive a payment towards the additional cost associated with training if, at the start of the apprenticeship, the apprentice is:

  • aged between 16 and 18 years old, or
  • aged between 19 and 24 years old and has either:
  • an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan provided by their local authority or
  • has been in the care of their local authority

For more information, please refer to the apprenticeship funding rules.

Apprenticeship service transfers (UPDATED 26 JANUARY 2023)

In April 2018 it became possible for levy-paying organisations to transfer up to 10 per cent of the annual value of funds entering their apprenticeship service account to other organisations via the apprenticeship service. This increased to 25 per cent from April 2019.

As of 13 December 2022, there have been 3,170 apprenticeship service commitments entered into the apprenticeship service with training start dates in the 2022/23 academic year, where the transfer of funds between ASAs has been approved. A further 180 commitments were pending approval for the transfer of funds.

A csv file containing breakdowns of transfers that have been recorded as starts on the ILR (as published in January 2023) can be downloaded via the ’Explore data and files’ section at the top of the release (see ‘Underlying data – starts arising from transferred commitments’). This file is updated alongside our quarterly releases, the next update being in March 2023.

Please note that providers may not record learners immediately on the ILR, so a lag may occur between a commitment being recorded in the apprenticeship service and the corresponding commitment being recorded as a start on the ILR.

Additionally, as commitments can be recorded/amended on the apprenticeship service system after the transfer approval date has passed, all data should be treated as provisional. Data are only fully captured when providers confirm details in the ILR. In the interests of transparency, what is known at this point of reporting has been included where possible.

Pledges

As of 13 December 2022:

  • The total number of pledges made by levy-paying employers was 320.
  • The total amount pledged stood at £21.35 million.

Note: these figures reflect the cumulative total of pledges since September 2021. Those that are currently available can be found at Search funding opportunities (manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk).

Applications

As of 13 December 2022:

  • the total number of applications submitted was 10,018 through 1,703 different Apprenticeship Service accounts.

the total number of apprentices applied for was 34,386. This figure will include employers submitting multiple applications for the same funding to different pledges. The number of unique apprenticeship positions applied for is difficult to determine, however it is likely to be in the range of 25 to 50 per cent of the total number of apprentices applied for. 

The number of approved applications was 1,583.

Additional featured tables

The following tables offer more detailed breakdowns and combinations of characteristics and are available in our  table builder tool :

Commitments by training start date, age and commitment status 2018/19 to 2022/23 
Monthly starts by funding type 2019/20 to 2022/23 
Redundancies by redundancy month and level 2020/21 to 2021/22 Final, 2022/23 reported to date 
Vacancies and Adverts posted on the Find An Apprenticeship website 

Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics

National statistics

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority designated these statistics as National Statistics in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Designation signifying their compliance with the authority's Code of Practice for Statistics which broadly means these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Once designated as National Statistics it's a statutory requirement for statistics to follow and comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics to be observed.

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

Contact us

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If you have a specific enquiry about Apprenticeships and traineeships statistics and data:

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Telephone: Matthew Rolfe
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