Financial year 2023-24

Skills bootcamps starts, completions and outcomes

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• Published: 18 September 2025
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• Produced by: Department for Education

This Skills Bootcamps publication presents data on the number of starts, completions, and outcomes for learners participating in Skills Bootcamps during the 2023–24 financial year.

In addition to headline statistics, this release provides detailed breakdowns previously only available in Skills Bootcamps  research reports (opens in new tab). Future releases on EES will continue this approach.  

Headline figures will be updated in Winter 2025, once data is available for the final cohort of learners and their reported outcomes.

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Releases in this series

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• Financial year 2022-23
• Financial year 2021-22
• Financial year 2020-21

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• Skills bootcamps starts, completions and outcomes

Related pages

• Evaluation of Skills Bootcamps: 2021 to 2022 completions and outcomes
• Evaluation of Skills Bootcamps: 2022 to 2023 completions and outcomes

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Headline facts and figures - 2023-24

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About these statistics

What are Skills Bootcamps?

Skills Bootcamps were introduced in 2020 to support adults to upskill and retrain in priority sectors with skills shortages such as Construction, Digital, Green, Engineering and Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) driving. They are employer-led, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, with an offer of a job interview for eligible participants on completion of the course. 

In the 2023-24 financial year, Skills Bootcamps had two delivery routes: through DfE-managed national contracts or via grants to local authorities (including Mayoral Strategic Authorities where they existed). It was the second year of delivery through grant funding to local authorities (including Mayoral Strategic Authorities) so there was a strong element of learning from delivery experience, alongside permitting up to 30% of funding to support delivery outside national priority sectors to support local growth clusters and sectors. 

Please see the methodology page for more detail relating to the quality of this data.

Definitions

Starts

Starts are defined as a participant having a start date recorded within the financial year, or a first payment made to the training provider. See our methodology page for a more detailed description.

Completions

A completion is defined as all training being completed by a learner, including any assessments. From FY21-22, this definition was expanded to also include either an offer of a job interview or written confirmation of how the skills acquired will be used to secure new responsibilities or business opportunities. 

Outcomes

Positive outcomes are defined as: 

• Participant becoming self-employed or continuing in self-employment with new opportunities
• Participant continuing in current employment with new or increased responsibilities
• New employment (including full-time, part time, temporary or apprenticeship)
• Participant gaining new role with current employer

Completion rate

Total completions as a proportion of total starts.

Outcome rate (% starts)

Total outcomes as a proportion of total starts.

Outcome rate (% completions)

Total outcomes as a proportion of total completions. 

Starts, completions, outcomes for Skills Bootcamps in 2023-2024

Of the 60,410 Skills Bootcamp starts in 2023-2024 financial year, 71% completed and 47% had a successful outcome. 

Starts, completions and outcomes by Sector

Skills Bootcamps are categorised into sector subject areas (opens in new tab) in the ILR. For Skills Bootcamps not recorded in the ILR, the sector was assigned based on the course name. The breakdown below shows completion and outcome rates by sector. Please note that some categories are based on a small number of cases, which may affect how the results are interpreted.

HGV learners are classified into the ‘Retail and Commercial Enterprise’ sector as part of ‘Warehousing and distribution’ sector subject area tier 2 classification.    

The sectors with the highest completion rates are Preparation for Life and Work (93%), Health (86%), and Construction (83%). The lowest completion rates are in Digital (65%), Education (72%), and Retail and Commercial (including HGV) (70%). Construction and Preparation for Life and Work also record the highest outcome rates (69% and 63% respectively) as a percentage of starts, while Science and Mathematics (27%) and Digital (30%) have the lowest.   

Learners in the Science and Mathematics sector participate in Digital Skills Bootcamps with an emphasis on data. However, as this sector was only recorded for a small group in the DPS1 delivery phase, the findings should not be overinterpreted. The Digital Technology sector offers a stronger basis for representation.

By Sector and Sex

More men than women started a Skills Bootcamp, men also have higher completion (72% compared to 69%) and outcome (50% compared to 38%) rates than women. 

Looking at the data by Sector and Sex, men are more likely to take part in Construction and Engineering Skills Bootcamps, which have relatively high outcome rates, while women are more concentrated in Digital and Business, where outcomes are lower. In some sectors, men also achieve higher outcomes than women, especially in Engineering and Business. In other sectors like Digital, women do slightly better. 

Starts, completions, outcomes for HGV Skills Bootcamps

For the 2023-2024 financial year, HGV learners were included in nationally delivered Skills Bootcamps, as well as grants and extensions from the previous financial year. The table below shows the total counts for all HGV courses separately, for continuity with previous published statistics releases.

Starts, completions and outcomes by Age and Sex

When looking at completion and outcome rates by age and sex, completion rates differ most between men and women in the youngest and oldest age groups. Outcome rates are most similar for men and women in the 55–67 age group and most different in the 35–44 group.

Starts, completions and outcomes by Region

The completion and outcome rates of Skills Bootcamps vary across regions in England. The region with the highest completion rate is the North East with 80%. The region with the lowest completion rate is London with 64%.

There is also a large variation in outcome rates across regions. The North East has the highest, with 59% of starts securing a successful outcome, compared to 33% in London, a difference of 26 percentage points.

Using the interactive map you can explore the distribution of starts, completions and outcomes across regions in England.

Starts, completions and outcomes by Ethnic group

White learners had the highest completion rate (76%) and outcome rate (57%), whilst Black learners had the lowest (60% completion and 27% outcome). This reflects a 16 percentage point difference in completion rates and a 30 percentage point difference in outcome rates.

Starts, completions and outcomes by Learning Difficulty/Disability

A majority of Skills Bootcamps learners do not have a learning difficulty or disability. Learners with a learning difficulty or disability (LLDD) have a completion rate of 3 percentage points lower, and an outcome rate 7 percentage points lower, than those without.

Starts, completions and outcomes by Employment Status and Universal Credit Status

Employment Status

Self-employed learners had the highest completion (78%) and outcome (63%) rate. Making up 39% of all starts, learners not in paid employment have the lowest completion and outcome rate (68% and 35% respectively).

Universal Credit Status 

Learners not in receipt of Universal Credit had a 7 percentage point higher completion rate and a 14 percentage point higher outcome rate than learners in receipt of Universal Credit. Please see the additional footnote with more information on Universal Credit classification in this data. 

Starts, completions and outcomes by Learners' Highest Education Level

The majority of Skills Bootcamp starts in 2023-2024 had a highest prior education level of Level 3. However, these learners recorded the lowest completion rate. Learners with a Level 2 qualification had the highest completion rate, with 76% completing the course. They also achieved the highest outcome rate at 60%. The outcome rate was lowest for those with their highest prior education level being level 5. 

Starts, completions and outcomes by Co-funded Status and Delivery Phase

Co-funded Status

Learners who were co-funded by their employer had a completion rate 15 percentage points higher and an outcome rate 40 percentage points higher than those who were not co-funded (independent learners). Co-funded learners are upskilled in their current job so have more employer support than independent learners. See the additional footnote  for more context on limitations comparing these groups.

Delivery Phase

Skills Bootcamps for the 2023-2024 financial year were delivered in different phases. National contracts (DPS1 and DPS2), some were extensions from the previous financial year (W3 and HGV extensions/HGVX). The rest were delivered via grants (W4G). See the combined table and table split by delivery phase below. 

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• Skills bootcamps starts, completions and outcomes

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Email: olivia.garbutt@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Olivia Garbutt

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