Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Find out more about Skills Bootcamps at this link: Skills Bootcamps - Skills for Life (opens in a new tab).
Skills Bootcamps were first launched in Autumn 2020. Delivered across 6 areas of England, they focused on digital skills including cyber security, coding, software development and engineering, data analysis and digital marketing. There were also some technical Skills Bootcamps in rail engineering, engineering construction, photonics, broadband installation, specialist welding and advanced brickwork. Data about this delivery (between September 2020 and March 2021) can be found at this link Skills Bootcamps outcomes, Financial Year 2020-21 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk). There was also a process evaluation of wave 1 (opens in a new tab).
The model was expanded in FY2021-22, to make Skills Bootcamps available across England in a wider range of skill areas including digital, technical (including engineering and manufacturing), construction, and skills that support the green economy. The model was further expanded in November 2021 to provide Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving, to help address the national skills shortage in this sector. Data about this delivery (between April 2021 and March 2022) can be found at this link Skills Bootcamps starts, Financial year 2021-22 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)
Skills Bootcamps have continued to expand, delivering more learner starts and supporting a greater number of sectors and skill areas in FY22-23. These statistics refer to the number of Skills Bootcamps starts in this period of delivery and are based on data returned by Skills Bootcamps providers.
Alongside these data, DfE has commissioned an independent evaluation of Skills Bootcamps undertaken in FY2021-22 and FY2022-23. The first research report (opens in a new tab) from this evaluation has been published. Further reports will be available which will provide insight into how Skills Bootcamps are working and further breakdowns of starts by subject, region and participant characteristics.
Further statistics for learner completions and outcomes by participants who started a funded Skills Bootcamp during the financial year 2021-22 will be published in due course, once the data is available from providers. Please see the methodology section for more detail relating to the quality of this data.