Academic year 2021/22

Apprenticeships and traineeships

WarningThis publication has been superseded by Apprenticeships
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See all updates (18) for Academic year 2021/22
  1. Updated with December transparency data

  2. Correction to labels on one chart

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

  4. Updated with full, final data covering the 2021/22 academic year (August 2021 to July 2022)

  5. Updated with October transparency data

  6. Updated with September transparency data

  7. Updated with August transparency data, and clarification of historical achievement rates data

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

  9. Updated with data covering the first three quarters of 2021/22

  10. Updated with June transparency data

  11. Correction to typo on date published

  12. Updated with May transparency data

  13. Updated with April transparency data. Also includes a supplementary achievement rate table showing frameworks and standards

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

  15. Updated with data covering the first two quarters of 2021/22. Achievement rate data also added covering 2019/20 and 2020/21

  16. Updated with February transparency data

  17. Updated to remove 2019/20 national apprenticeship achievement rates

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

Release type

Introduction

December 2022 update

This transparency update makes changes to the ‘Apprenticeship Service and monthly transparency data’ and ‘Additional analysis’ sections. The latest available apprenticeship service and Find an apprenticeship data is provided. 

Please note: the first in-year apprenticeship starts data for the 2022/23 academic year, covering August to October 2022 will be published in January 2023.

November 2022 update

This release shows full-year final data on apprenticeships and traineeships in England for the 2021/22 academic year (August 2021 to July 2022).

This update also includes the latest available apprenticeship service data including commitments, registrations, and reservations.

From January, our proposal is to change the structure of the release but not reduce the amount of data published on a quarterly basis. These changes will address the complexity of the current release to improve user access to content and allow for easier maintenance. Please see section below headed “Future changes” for further details.

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

Data in this release covers a period affected by varying COVID-19 restrictions, which will have 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 - 2021/22

Explore data and files used in this release

  • View or create your own tables

    View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool

  • Data catalogue

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

  • Data guidance

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

  • Download all data (ZIP)

    Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file

Additional supporting files

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

About these statistics

December 2022 update

This update provides the latest available apprenticeship service data, along with additional analysis relevant to the Find an apprenticeship service. These official statistics include:

  • 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 to November 2022

November 2022 release

This statistical release presents provisional information on all age (16+) apprenticeships starts, achievements and participation in England reported for the full 2021/22 academic year based on data returned in October 2022.

Also published are official statistics covering:

  • Apprenticeship service commitments, registrations, and reservations
  • Apprenticeship incentive payments
  • 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 published in November 2022 are based on the fourteenth ILR data return from FE and apprenticeship providers for the 2021/22 academic year. 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 to 2021 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 to 2020 or 2020 to 2021 academic years. We have published high level summaries of QARs for statistical purposes. 

In April 2022, an additional supporting file was made available detailing achievement rates for individual frameworks and standards. This can be found in the ‘Apprenticeship Achievement Rates Standards and Frameworks’ file in the Explore data and files section.

Achievement rates covering the 2021 to 2022 academic year are planned to be published as part of our March 2023 statistics update.

Provider reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Data in this publication covers a period 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.

Public sector apprenticeship statistics

Public bodies who are in scope are required to submit a Data Publication and Activity return to the Department for Education each reporting year of the apprenticeship target. In their returns, public bodies provide self-reported information on the employment period and headcount relating to the target. The onus is on individual bodies to be accountable for their programme and to publish this information independently as well as report progress to the DfE.

The downloadable underlying data for the target exactly replicates the information supplied by public sector bodies. As such, the accuracy of these submissions cannot be completely verified in all aspects, although certain validation checks have been undertaken and some bodies removed from the calculation of aggregated numbers and flagged in the underlying data.

Certain inconsistencies may appear between headcount and apprentice data submitted in each reporting year by an individual body. Some of these can be explained by a change in structure in the body (e.g. a merger).

It is difficult to give a completely accurate measure of the coverage of submission received. An internal mapping based on Apprenticeship Service account names has identified those that appear to be public sector but not all those flagged will be in scope (e.g. some will have fewer than 250 staff).

Comparing the 2021-22 submissions with our mapping of accounts suggest that at least 75% of all public sector bodies, irrespective of size, have made an official return. Further to this, linking accounts to starts recorded on the ILR suggests that almost 90% of all public sector starts were in the bodies that have made an official return.

The group of public sector bodies making a data return in 2021-22 is different to those that responded in previous years:

  • some bodies that submitted in previous years have not supplied data for 2021-22.
  • some bodies have submitted for the first time for 2021-22. 
  • some bodies have either fallen in or out of scope of the target based on the 250 headcount threshold.
  • multi academy trusts were not required to submit data in 2017-18.

As such, the aggregate totals for headcount and apprentices as at 31 March 2021 (the end- point of the 2020-21 collection and the start point of 2021-22) will differ between collections. The same is true for the transitions between 2017-18 and 2018-19, 2018-19 to 2019-20 and 2019-20 to 2020-21.

Aggregate headcount and apprentice figures and associated percentages are provided separately for the start and end of each reporting year. For the years of the initial four-year target, an average percentage of employees starting an apprenticeship over the period of the target is also calculated as a weighted average.

Further information about the data collection process, the public bodies in scope and the mapping of Apprenticeship Service Accounts to sectors, can be found in the technical information section of the November 2018 release.

How to use this release and find data

This section provides guidance on finding data and providing feedback. 

Find my data 

To find information on topics of interest, expand the content sections i.e. Subject, Geographical breakdowns, Provider. In each section, there will be: 

  • Tables/charts and summary commentary on the relevant area 
  • Links to additional pre-prepared tables 

You can also create your own tables through the table tool or modify the pre-prepared tables which use the same files. 

In the ‘Interactive data visualisation tool’ section, there is a link to a new experimental data tool which has been developed to complement the release.

There is a Methodology document which is linked under ‘Useful information’ at the top of this release, which contains further information on the statistics published here.

At the top of the release, there is a link ‘Explore data and files’ which includes:

  • Data that sits underneath the release
  • Supporting tables created outside the EES platform
  • Underlying CSV files that contain richer base data, and associated metadata files

Summary tables displayed in each of the sections contain the full 2021/22 academic year along with full year figures for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/academic years. 

The pre-prepared tables (available at the bottom of each section) contain more information, and where possible show full year final data from 2016/17 to 2021/22. However, due to performance limitations, some files contain a shorter period of data than the standard six years.

If you are looking for historical data not available in this release, see the FE data library where there is more than six years’ worth of data.

Related Releases

The latest FE and skills statistics can be found here Further education and skills. 

To find previous publications on apprenticeships and traineeships see the Statistics: further education and skills collection.

Other related releases include: 

FE choices employer satisfaction survey

FE choices learner satisfaction survey

National achievement rates tables collection- older data

Feedback

This release is a completely new approach to publishing our data and statistics which we are looking to evolve overtime. As a result, your feedback is important to help us improve and develop.

To provide feedback on this release, please email us.

Interactive data visualisation tool

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

This new 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.

Latest headline statistics

The cycle of updates for this section now aligns with full academic year data which can be found in the Annual time series section. 

Latest headline statistics will resume in this section when we publish quarter one for 2022/23.

Annual time series

The figures in this section relate to the 2021/22 academic year and were first published in November 2022. 

Apprenticeship 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.

History of apprenticeship participation

Final figures for 2021/22 show all-age apprenticeship participation was 740,400, a 3.8% increase compared to 2020/21 (713,000).

There was a steady decline in participation between 2016/17 and 2020/21 with figures falling from 908,700 to 713,000. This was primarily driven by a rapid decline in participation at intermediate level. 

Participation in higher apprenticeships has increased steadily since 2014/15. Figures for 2021/22 (238,800) show an increase of 14.9% compared to the previous year.

Apprenticeship starts

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.

Of the 349,200 starts:

  • Higher apprenticeship (level 4+) starts reached their highest volume, representing almost a third of all starts.
  • The share of starts for under 19s increased to 22.2% from 20.3% in 2020/21.
  • Total starts supported by ASA levy funds were 225,600; this accounts for 64.6% of all starts. Please see the 'Methodology changes' section of the 'Further education and skills statistics: methodology' document for more information about ASA levy funds.

Higher apprenticeship starts have increased over time. These accounted for just 4.0% of starts (19,800) in 2014/15, rising to 30.5% (106,400) in 2021/22.

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 from 2018/19.

Please note: given apprenticeships take more than a year to complete, changes in the volume of achievements will reflect changes in start volumes in preceding years. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic led to delays in some learners achieving their apprenticeship. This means caution should be taken when comparing achievements between different years.

Create your own tables 

More detailed breakdowns of the combinations of characteristics in the tables above are available in our table builder tool as well as information on achievements and participation. 

The following table offers a useful breakdown as a starting point for 2014/15 to 2021/22. 
File subject What is available in the file
Annual headlines - detailed series

Indicators: Achievements, Achievements percentage, Participation, Participation percentage, Starts, and Starts percentage

Filters: Age, Level and Funding type

Length of employment

Of apprenticeship starts in 2021/22 where the length of employment was known:

  • Apprentices who had worked for their employer for more than 12 months accounted for 35.9%
  • Apprentices who had worked for up to 3 months accounted for 48.4%

Average expected duration of apprenticeships

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

The average expected apprenticeship duration has generally increased at most apprenticeship levels since 2014/15 (with the exception of some of the higher levels). The total average expected duration (for all levels) will also be influenced by changes in the proportions of apprentices participating at higher levels (which tend to be longer in duration). 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 

Planned length of stay

Final figures for 2021/22 show that 96.1% of apprenticeships started were expected to last for 12 months or more – the highest percentage recorded.

Older apprentices were more likely to have a planned apprenticeship stay of fewer than 12 months: 

  • for those aged 25 and over – 5.6%
  • for those aged 19-24 – 3.6%
  • for those aged under 19 – 0.9%

Learner characteristics

Apprenticeship starts

Of the 349,200 apprenticeship starts reported in the 2021/22 academic year:  

  • Females account for 50.8% (177,300).
  • Apprentices aged Under 19 account for 22.2% (77,500).
  • 19 to 24-year-olds account for 30.5% (106,300).
  • Apprentices aged 25 and over account for 47.4% (165,300).
  • Ethnic groups (excluding white minorities) represent 14.7% (50,400).
  • Apprentices declaring a learner learning difficulty and/or disability (LLDD) account for 14% (47,500).

Apprentices aged 25 and over have the highest share of starts at 47.4%. 

Apprentices aged 19-24 are the next largest group representing 30.5% and apprentices aged under 19 represent 22.2%. 

The percentage of starts from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) in 2021/22 is 14.7% (50,400) which is higher compared to the 14.3% (44,800) seen in 2020/21, and higher than the 12.5% (48,400) recorded in 2018/19 in the same period. 

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the learner characteristics data. The following tables offer a range of useful breakdowns for 2016/17 to 2021/22.

File subject 

What is available in the file 

Learner characteristics - detailed series

Indicators: Starts, Achievements and Participation

Filters: Detailed Ethnicity, Apprenticeship level, Age group, Ethnicity group,  Under 19/19+ flag, LLDD and Sex

Learner characteristics - deprivation by starts

Indicators: Starts

Filters: Learner deprivation, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Age group, Under 19/19+ flag and Apprenticeship detailed level

Learner characteristics - deprivation by participation

Indicators: Participation, Intermediate learners, Advanced learners and Higher learners

Filters: Learner deprivation, Under 19/19+ flag and Age group

Learner characteristics - learning difficulties and or disabilityIndicators: Starts, Achievements and Participation 

Filters: LLDD primary, LLDD, Under 19/19+ flag, Ethnicity, Apprenticeship level and Age group 

Subjects and levels - learner demographics
Indicators: Starts 

Filters: STEM flag, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Sex, Detailed level, Age group, LLDD and Ethnicity

Subjects and levels

Apprenticeship starts

Out of 349,200 apprenticeship starts in the 2021/22 academic year:

  • Starts supported by ASA levy funds represent 64.6% (225,590). Please see the 'Methodology changes' section of the 'Further education and skills statistics: methodology' document for more information about ASA levy funds.
  • Intermediate (Level 2) apprenticeships represent 26.2% (91,500), advanced (Level 3) apprenticeships represent 43.3% (151,300), and higher (Level 4 and above) apprenticeships 30.5% (106,400)
  • Degree level (Level 6 and 7) apprenticeships represent 12.4% (43,200) of all starts for 2021/22.
  • Science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects represent 28.2% (98,300)

Apprenticeship standards are 99.5% of starts. Note: There are still a small number of starts on frameworks. All remaining apprenticeship frameworks were withdrawn to new learners on 31 July 2020. Learners who started on frameworks are where it has been agreed a learner can return to a previous framework they have been on after an extensive break.

Apprenticeship achievements

Out of 137,200 apprenticeship achievements in the 2021/22 academic year:

  • Intermediate (Level 2) and advanced (Level 3) apprenticeships together make up 74.7% of all achievements (27.2% intermediate and 47.6% advanced – 102,600 achievements in total).
  • Science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects represent 28.9% (39,700).
  • Business, admin and law related subjects continue to have the highest volume of achievements (40,200), accounting for 29.3%. 

Sector Subject Areas

Health, Public Services and Care is now the most popular sector subject area, accounting for 28.6% of starts (99,800) in the 2021/22 academic year. 

This is closely followed by Business, Administration and Law -related subjects, which accounted for 26.9% of starts (93,900) in the 2021/22 academic year. 

Apprenticeship Standards

Starts on standards account for 99.5% of all starts in the first threequarters of the 2021/22 academic year. There are still a small number of starts on frameworks where it has been agreed a learner can return to a previous framework they have been on.

Level 6 and above

Starts at Level 6 and 7 increased by 10.3% to 43,200 in 2021/22. This represents 12.4% of all starts reported for 2021/22.  There were 39,200 Level 6 and 7 starts in the same period last year (12.2% of starts in the same period).

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the subjects and levels data. The following tables offer a range of useful breakdowns for 2016/17 to 2021/22.

File subject 

What is available in the file


Subjects and levels - detailed series

Indicators: Starts, Achievements and Enrolments

Filters: Apprenticeship level, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Standard/framework flag, Detailed level, STEM flag, Apprenticeship degree flag, Level 6 plus flag and Sector Subject Area (tier 2)


Subjects and levels - standards and frameworks

Indicators: Starts, Achievements and Enrolments

Filters: Standard/framework name, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Detailed level and Learner characteristics (age, Ethnicity, LLDD, Sex) 

For best performance due to the file size, please download the ‘Subjects and levels - standards and frameworks’ file from the Explore data and files section.


Subjects and levels - learner demographics
Indicators: Starts

Filters: STEM flag, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Sex, Detailed level, Age group, LLDD and Ethnicity

Subjects and levels - apprenticeship levy
Indicators: Starts and Achievements

Filters: Levy supported flag, Age group, Under 19/19+ flag, Apprenticeship level, Sex and LLDD

Geographical breakdowns

Apprenticeship starts

Out of the 349,200 apprenticeship starts reported in the 2021/22 academic year: 

  • The English region with the highest number of starts was the South East with 53,100.
  • The English region with the lowest number of starts was the North East with 19,700.
  • 3,500 starts were of apprentices who lived outside of England or who have postcodes that are not known.

Apprenticeship start rate per 100,000 population

Accounting for population size in each region:

  • the North East has the highest rate of apprenticeship starts (1,183 starts per 100,000 population aged 16-64). 
  • London has the lowest rate of starts (625 per 100,000 population aged 16-64). 

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.

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the geographical breakdowns data. The following tables offer a range of useful breakdowns.

File subject 

What is available in the file 

Geographical breakdowns - detailed (reported to date)

Time period: 2021/22

Locations: Local Authority District, National and Regional

Indicators: Starts and Achievements

Filters: Apprenticeship level, Ethnicity group, Sector Subject Area (tier 1) and Sex

Geographical breakdowns - PCON and LADTime period: 2016/17 to 2021/22 

Locations: Local Authority District, National and Parliamentary constituency 

Indicators: Participation, Starts and Achievements 

Filters: Apprenticeship level, Age group and Sex
Geographical breakdowns - LEP and EDATime period: 2016/17 to 2021/22 

Locations: Local Enterprise Partnership and English Devolved Area 

Indicators: Starts and Achievements

Filters: Apprenticeship level, Sector Subject Area (tier 1),Age group, Ethnicity Group and Sex

Starts since May 2010 and May 2015

Additional tables showing parliamentary constituency, local authority and regional breakdowns of total apprenticeship starts since May 2010 and May 2015 can be found in the ‘Explore data and files’ section at the top of this publication (see 'Supporting tables - Apprenticeship starts since May 2010 and 2015 by region, local authority and parliamentary constituency').

Providers

Apprenticeship Starts

Of the 349,200 apprenticeship starts in the 2021/22 academic year:

  • Private Sector Public Funded providers were responsible for 65.2% (227,600).
  • General FE colleges account for 18.7% (65,300) and other public funded (i.e. LAs and HE) providers a further 15.2% (53,000).
  • Schools, Sixth Form Colleges, and Special Colleges make up 1.0% of starts.

Of the 227,600 apprenticeship starts at Private Sector Public Funded providers, 46.1% are Advanced level, 28.9% Higher level, and the remaining 25.0% Intermediate level.

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the provider data. The following tables offer a range of useful breakdowns for 2016/17 to 2021/22.

File subject 

What is available in the file

Providers - detailed series

Indicators: Apprenticeship starts and achievements

Filters:  Provider name, UKPRN, Apprenticeship level, and Sector Subject Area (tier 1). 

For best performance due to the file size, please download the ‘Providers - latest detailed series’ file from the Explore data and files section.

Providers - traineeship starts

Indicators: Traineeship starts

Filters:  Provider name, UKPRN

Public sector apprenticeships

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 the ‘About these statistics’ section of this release.

The latest figures in this section relate to the 2021-22 target and are being published for the first time in 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.
 

Traineeships

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.  

Additional information on traineeships is available within this publication:

  • traineeship incentive payments in the ‘Additional analysis’ section
  • traineeship starts by provider in the ‘Provider’ section

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)

Completion rates and conversions into apprenticeship starts

Completion rates

Completion rates for traineeships that were started during the 2020/21 academic year have been updated in this release and are now final.

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. 

National achievement rate tables

UPDATED 28th April 2022: Additional data showing individual frameworks and standards now available 

Please see the supporting ‘Apprenticeship Achievement Rates Standards and Frameworks’ file in the Explore data and files section.

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.

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the achievement rates data. The following tables offer a range of useful breakdowns for 2018/19 to 2020/21. 

File subject

What is available in the file

Achievement rates - demographicsIndicators: Achievement rate, Achievers, Completers, Leavers, Pass rate and Retention rate

Filters: Age group, Ethnicity group, Gender, LLDD and Standard/framework flag
Achievement rates - EthnicityIndicators: Achievement rate, Achievers, Completers, Leavers, Pass rate and Retention rate

Filters: Ethnicity, Gender, LLDD, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Standard/framework flag, Age group and Apprenticeship level
Achievement rates - genderIndicators: Achievement rate, Achievers, Completers, Leavers, Pass rate and Retention rate

Filters: Ethnicity, Gender, LLDD, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Standard/framework flag, Age group and Apprenticeship level
Achievement rates - learning difficulties and or disabilityIndicators: Achievement rate, Achievers, Completers, Leavers, Pass rate and Retention rate

Filters: Ethnicity, Gender, LLDD, Sector Subject Area (tier 1), Standard/framework flag, Age group and Apprenticeship level

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).

Apprenticeship Service and monthly transparency data

This section contains information on the Apprenticeship Service, along with monthly breakdowns of apprenticeship starts. Links to the most up-to-date information can also be found here and are made available for transparency purposes.

As of May 2017, significant structural changes were made to the apprenticeship funding system including the introduction of the levy and the apprenticeship service. 

Monthly apprenticeship starts (AS PUBLISHED 24 NOVEMBER 2022)

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. 

Further breakdowns of monthly apprenticeship starts (including the latest 2021/22 monthly figures in the above table) by level, age, sector subject area, framework/standard name, start month and degree apprenticeship flag are available in underlying data via the ‘Explore data and files’ link at the top of the publication (see ‘Underlying data - apprenticeship monthly starts’).

Apprenticeship service statistics (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

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.

This analysis has been included to provide transparency with regards to the apprenticeship service, an online service implemented in May 2017 that allows employers to choose and pay for apprenticeship training more easily, and its usage.

Levy paying organisations have used the apprenticeship service since its introduction in May 2017. This is not the case for non-levy-paying organisations. In January 2020 the Apprenticeship service was extended so that all employers that do not pay the levy could register and reserve funds. From April 2021, all new apprenticeship starts at non-levy paying organisations were funded via the apprenticeship service. This means it is not possible to compare data for non-levy organisations between academic years.

Apprenticeship service use by levy-paying organisations (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

As of 10 November 2022, the number of commitments reported to date associated with the apprenticeship service accounts of levy-paying organisations with training start dates in the first three months of the 2022/23 academic year was 71,680 (59,620 fully agreed). This compares with 72,750 reported to date for the same period in the 2021/22 academic year (71,670 fully agreed).

The 75,320 commitments reported so far with training start dates in the 2022/23 academic year associated with the apprenticeship service accounts of levy-paying organisations represent 58.2% of the 129,410 total commitments (including those at non-levy organisations).

Total commitments reported to date for October 2022 associated with levy-paying organisations was 19,550. In October 2021, there were 18,930 commitments.

Apprenticeship service use by non-levy-paying organisations (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

The number of commitments reported to date associated with the apprenticeship service accounts of non-levy-paying organisations with training start dates in the first quarter of the 2022/23 academic year was 48,270 (32,010 fully agreed). This compares with 47,540 reported to date for the same period in the 2021/22 academic year (43,450 fully agreed).

The 54,100 commitments reported so far with training start dates in the 2022/23 academic year associated with the apprenticeship service accounts of non-levy-paying organisations represent 41.8% of the 129,410 total commitments (including those at levy-paying organisations).

Employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy are able to make a funding ‘reservation’ (or have a funding ‘reservation’ made on their behalf) with respect to an apprenticeship planned to start in the following three months. This reservation is in advance of recruitment or an offer of an apprenticeship being made to an existing employee.

As of 10 November 2022, for the 2021/22 academic year, there have so far been: 

  • 169,730 reservations made, of which 4,700 have been subsequently deleted and 36,550 expired.
  • By 76,190 non-levy paying apprenticeship service accounts.
  • Supported by 960 providers.

As of 10 November 2022, for the 2022/23 academic year, there have so far been: 

  • 55,830 reservations made, of which 810 have been subsequently deleted and 1,110 expired.
  • By 34,520 non-levy paying apprenticeship service accounts.
  • Supported by 830 providers.

Apprenticeship service account registrations (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

As of 10 November 2022, the number of registered Apprenticeship Service Accounts (ASAs) was 166,300. Levy-paying organisations had 22,100 accounts and non-levy organisations had 144,200 accounts.

  • Organisations can create accounts at any point, and these are reported here. Not all accounts will be active in terms of funding apprenticeships. Please see the methodology document for further information about interpreting registration figures.
  • ASAs are set up by businesses in order to manage their apprenticeships, for instance to get apprenticeship funding or recruit apprentices. There is no direct relationship between apprenticeship service accounts and employers. An employer may have more than one apprenticeship service account, whilst accounts set up by levy-paying employers can be associated with more than one PAYE scheme.

Apprenticeship service transfers (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

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 10 November 2022, there have been 8,520 apprenticeship service commitments entered into the apprenticeship service with training start dates in the 2021/22 academic year, where the transfer of funds between ASAs has been approved. A further 70 commitments were pending approval for the transfer of funds.

Of these 8,520 transferred commitments

  • one-third (2,850) were transfers to levy-paying organisations 
  • two-thirds (5,670) were transfers to non-levy-paying organisations.

As of 10 November 2022: 

  • the number of fully agreed transferred commitments that have so far been recorded as apprenticeship starts on the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) in the 2021/22 academic year is 8,020. 

A csv file containing breakdowns of transfers that have been recorded as starts on the ILR (as published in November 2022) 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 January 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.

Levy transfer matching service (AS PUBLISHED 24 NOVEMBER 2022)

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.

Since September 2021, transfer opportunities have been available to view on a public pledge page. Employers may decide to transfer their levy to specific sectors or businesses. They may also choose to fund particular levels of apprenticeship.

Levy-paying employers can advertise transfers with four details:

  • Apprenticeship level
  • Location
  • Sector
  • Type of role

Pledges

As of 25 October 2022:

  • The total number of pledges made by levy-paying employers was 300.
  • The total amount pledged stood at £20.39 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).

Of the 300 pledges made, the most advertised criteria have so far been:

  • For levels, 20% have specifically advertised apprenticeships at Level 3, (60 pledges), followed by 15% at Level 2 (46 pledges) and 14% at Level 4 (43 pledges).
  • For sector, 24% have specifically advertised apprenticeships in Charity (72 pledges), followed by 19% in Care services (56 pledges) and 17% in Health and science (52 pledges).
  • For job role, 9% have specifically advertised Business and administration (26 pledges), with 8% doing Care services (23 pledges)

Note: pledges can advertise multiple levels, sectors and job roles. Pledges that do not specifically state a level, sector or job role (advertised as "Any") are not included as specifically advertised in the figures above.

Applications

As of 25 October 2022:

  • the total number of applications submitted was 9,240 through 1,599 different Apprenticeship Service accounts.
  • the total number of apprentices applied for was 32,303. 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 1,482.

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the commitments data. The following table offers useful breakdowns for the total number of commitments as at 10 November 2022.

File subject 

What is available in the file 

Apprenticeship service - commitmentsIndicators: Commitments 

Filters: Age group, Start month, Apprenticeship level, Latest levy status, Start academic year, Payment status and Transfer flag

Additional analysis

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.

This analysis has been included to provide wider contextual information on the apprenticeship programme as a whole.

Apprenticeship incentive payments (FINAL UPDATE 21 JULY 2022)

The government introduced new incentive payments in August 2020 to support employers in creating new apprenticeship opportunities. Employers were eligible to apply for this incentive for each apprentice they hire as a new employee to their organisation. 

Employers who hired new apprentices between 01 August 2020 and 31 March 2021 were eligible for £2,000 for new apprentices aged 16 to 24, or £1,500 for apprentices aged 25 and over. In March 2021, the Chancellor announced an increase to the incentive payment, with employers eligible for £3000 for each apprentice, of any age, they hire as a new employee between 01 April and 30 September 2021. In October 2021, the Chancellor announced a further extension of the incentive payment programme to 31 January 2022. Applications for the programme closed on 20 May 2022, therefore these statistics (published on 21 July 2022) will not be updated further.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/incentive-payments-for-hiring-a-new-apprentice

As of 13 June 2022, the number of apprentices recorded on the Apprenticeship Service for whom incentive claims have been submitted by employers totalled 195,590.

  • The number of apprenticeship service accounts who made the submissions for incentive payments was 63,700.
  • The proportion of the submissions for those aged between 16 and 24, and 25 or over are 77% and 23% respectively.

The monthly pattern of incentive claims based on the start date of the apprenticeship. Typically 5,000 to 10,000 claims every month are seen, however September 2021 had nearly 40,000 claims.

The proportions by apprenticeship level (see here for more information):

  • Intermediate (level 2) accounted for 37%.
  • Advanced (level 3) accounted for 46%.
  • Higher (level 4+) accounted for 17%.

The three sector subject areas with the most incentive claims (see here for more information):

  • Health, Public Services and Care accounted for 25%.
  • Business, Administration and Law accounted for 20% 
  • Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies accounted for 19%.

Traineeships incentive payments (AS PUBLISHED 24 NOVEMBER 2022)

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 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For incentive payments made up to and including 10 November 2022:

  • The number of traineeship incentives paid has been 6,401.
  • The number of unique organisations receiving a payment has been 2,863.
  • The number of unique learners who have received an incentive payment for an employer has been 6,269.

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.
 

Traineeship incentive payments by local authority district

The ‘traineeship-incentive-payments-by-2022-nov’ CSV file in the ‘explore data and files’ section provides breakdowns of the numbers above based on the local authority district (LAD) of the learner’s home postcode for whom an employer has received a payment.

As stated above there have been 2,863 unique organisations who have received an incentive payment. In the LAD CSV file ‘the number of organisations receiving an incentive payment’ column sums to more than the unique count of organisations above. This is because the number of organisations paid in each LAD is a distinct count of organisations who have been paid due to hosting a placement for a learner living in that LAD. 

A single organisation may have received payment for learners in more than one LAD so may be included in the organisation count of more than one LAD in the CSV file but is only counted once in the total unique number of organisations receiving a payment (the 2,863 above). 

Apprenticeship care leavers’ bursary (AS PUBLISHED 24 NOVEMBER 2022)

Apprentices are eligible to receive a payment if they have been in the care of a UK local authority. The apprenticeship care leavers’ bursary is a single payment of £1,000, and an individual care leaver can only receive it once. Further information about the payment of the bursary, and eligibility criteria can be found in this policy summary.

As at 25 October 2022, a total of 1,180 apprentices have received a care leavers bursary payment since 1 August 2018.

Apprenticeship care leaver’s bursary payments, 2018/19 to 2022/23 (reported as at 25 October 2022) 

Academic year

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22 

2022/23 (reported to date)
Number of bursary payments28032021035030

Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

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.

Employers reporting the withdrawal of apprentices due to redundancy (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

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. 

As of 10 November 2022, the number of apprenticeship redundancies reported so far from August 2020 was 9,020; of which:

Proportion by age group:

  • Under 19: 32%
  • 19-24: 29%
  • 25 and over: 38%

Proportions by apprenticeship level (see here for more information):

  • Intermediate (level 2): 30%
  • Advanced (level 3): 47%
  • Higher (level 4+): 23% 


Levy paying organisations accounted for 53%

In addition to the 9,020 redundancies, a further 1,690 redundancies were reported in 2020 prior to August, i.e. the new reporting feature has captured some delayed reporting prior to August. As it was not possible for an employer to provide redundancy as a reason for an apprenticeship ending prior to 30th July, data for months before August 2020 are underrepresented and an overall figure has been included for transparency only.

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 adverts and vacancies (UPDATED 22 DECEMBER 2022)

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 6,820 adverts comprising 11,940 vacancies on Find An Apprenticeship in November 2022. These are both around 40% down on November 2021 when there were 11,510 adverts and 19,770 vacancies. 

Create your own tables 

You can create your own tables in the table builder using the find an apprenticeship adverts and vacancies data. The following table offers useful breakdowns from August 2018 to November 2022.

File subject 

What is available in the file 

Find an apprenticeship adverts and vacanciesIndicators: Adverts and Vacancies

Filters: Month and Level

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 November 2022 and covers vacancies from August 2018 to October 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

 

Skills Toolkit (Experimental Statistics)

The Skills Toolkit was launched on 28 April 2020 to help people build their skills during the coronavirus outbreak and beyond.

The Department previously published experimental statistics in this release, covering the number of webpage views and the number of course registrations and completions reported by participating providers.

The number of providers able to supply updates on a regular and consistent basis has reduced over time, leading to reporting that is not representative of the entirety of activity undertaken through the Toolkit. As such, we have taken the decision to discontinue the publication of Skills Toolkit figures in this release.

The Skills Toolkit remains live, providing access to a range of free courses from trusted course providers. We are reviewing the operation of the Skills Toolkit and will confirm our plans in due course.

As last reported in June 2022:

As of 01 May 2022, there have been over 3.1 million (3,195,400) total page views on the skills toolkit website. This data is reported as a part of systems monitoring. Some users might access the page from more than one device and, if so, will be counted more than once in the figures.

As of 01 May 2022. there have been an estimated 256,200 course registrations and 51,700 course completions.

Please note:

  • These are experimental statistics and rely on website analytics and the method of processing these is subject to change and provide an indication of the engagement with the Skills Toolkit website and campaign, designed to encourage users to access free online learning resources during the COVID-19 pandemic to build new skills or get a new job. These statistics are being provided for transparency purposes and there are data limitations users need to consider around provider reporting and collection approach, which will result in an incomplete picture of all learning activity resulting from the Toolkit website.
  • In this update, four providers (AWS, Google, Virtual College, Open University) were unable to provide a complete data return for the latest period. Additionally, two courses (Good Things Foundation) are no longer reporting registrations or completion data, whilst thirteen FutureLearn courses and one Cisco course are no longer included in the Skills Toolkit listing.
  •  In the March 2021 update, the provider Corndel amended the methodology they used to improve their count of users and updated historic figures for the period covering September to December 2020, reducing the number of registrations for that period by 1,077.
  • In the March 2022 release we updated the course registrations and completions downloadable csv file, which also contains provider/course breakdowns (please see ‘Skills toolkit course registrations and completions as at 27-02-2022’ in ‘Explore data and files’). This downloadable file excludes provider data where this had not been validated by the time of reporting. 
  • The Skills Toolkit webpages are hosted on gov.uk and the National Careers Service website. Course registration is undertaken on course provider websites. Course providers supply data to the DfE for learners registering on their courses where they are satisfied they have done so through the Toolkit website. DfE do not receive data from course providers on the country the learner accessed the course from, but we expect this to be the UK in most cases.
  • Course providers collect data on registrations and completions to their courses through various methods and separately submit returns to the Department for Education relating to The Skills Toolkit. These returns are then assessed and aggregated. Estimates are provisional as there may be a lag in data reporting.
  • All providers are asked to outline their methods of reporting and explain why they are confident that the figures they provide represent an accurate view of the number of course registrations they have received, as a result of The Skills Toolkit. Course providers outline their method of reporting to the DfE after being given a clear mandate to ensure that they are accurate to the best of their knowledge and understanding, and are asked to report a change in their methods of reporting or any errors/issues they encounter as quickly as possible. Provider reports are then checked for unusual patterns.
  • Some providers may be unable to identify if course registrations resulted from ‘The Skills Toolkit’ campaign or other means. The numbers provided only include data which, are deemed robust enough for including at this stage, so may not including some genuine registrations and is likely to represent an undercount of the true number.
  • Course completions data are provided by providers in the same way registrations are and are subject to the same caveats. Additionally, not all providers are able to accurately report course completions, either because of the course format, e.g. downloadable content, videos etc, or because of technical issues to enable reporting, so, those data are not included in reporting and are denoted with 'N/A'. Further to this, how providers record completions and define what a completion is can vary, and again depending upon the course format (for e.g. interactive videos, modules etc), the completion stage could be different for various course types and a ‘completion’ may simply represent that a user has accessed learning material.
  • Providers are requested to provide similar assurances for information (including completions) made via their data returns.
  • Providers are not required to adhere to a specific approach because courses are structured differently and have different content, so learners engage with them in different ways which necessitates different approaches to calculating starts and completions.
  • Since the July 2020 update to this release where course providers collectively reported 136,000 course registrations a month after the Toolkit was launched, some course providers have made The Skills Toolkit team aware of issues in their reporting. For example, providers have made changes to their analytics software and to the structure of their websites affecting the number of course starts they report. As a result, the number of registrations was revised down in our October release to be, as of 30 September 2020 there have been 97,615 course registrations and 1,100,260 page views.
  • As part of the expansion of The Skills Toolkit in September 2020, we improved the reporting and quality assurance processes. As part of this work, we have identified issues with 12 courses and have removed these from our reported number of registrations.
  • As a result, we are now collecting more robust estimates of registrations and completions, but we continue to work with providers on improving this further.

Future Changes

In recent years we have focussed on expanding the range of data being published, such as commitments, redundancies, and vacancies. This has led to having a lot of sections, commentary, and extra tables built into the main release. Discussions with users have suggested it’s hard to find and access content within this release. 

We are therefore considering simplifying the release structure to have less sections so, we can refocus content into two initial sections that provide an annual summary using full year data, followed by a section showing in-year provisional data.  We are also introducing a section to focus on helping users to find all the tables and files in the release rather than use the release structure to achieve the same thing. 

Please note we are not intending to reduce the data files that are available quarterly. We will be looking at naming conventions of files and tables, as a one-off change from the January release as part of improving the ability of users to find files.

We are seeking to continue to update the two apprenticeship starts files we currently produce on a monthly basis. We know that the   other data in the monthly apprenticeship service and additional analysis sections are not used as much so we will continue to present them largely as they are now, but only update them within the quarterly release.  This change enables us to reprioritise resources to enable us to cover other areas of the apprenticeship programme more effectively.

We are considering making these changes and welcome your feedback. Should you wish to provide feedback please contact us on FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk

Help and support

Methodology

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

National statistics

These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Accreditation signifies 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

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Contact us

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

FE Stats Dissemination

Email: FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Matthew Rolfe

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)