Young people’s share of new apprenticeship starts plunged to the lowest level in five years during the first half of 2025-26.
Apprenticeship starts going to under-19s have hovered around 28 per cent since 2021. But this fell to 23.8 per cent this year as the rush to start higher-level apprenticeships before funding was withdrawn in January saw over-25s take one in two new apprenticeships between August and January.
Even discounting the level 7 spike, the number of year-on-year apprenticeship starts for under 19s fell from 56,470 in the first half of 2024-25 to 53,510 in the first half of this year, a 5 per cent drop.
The latest government statistics reveal 226,620 new apprenticeship starts recorded nationally between August 2025 and January, a 12 per cent jump on the same period the previous year.
The level 7 spike has also had an impact on the provider mix. Colleges saw their market share dip to 19 per cent, down from 21 per cent, even though they collectively started nearly 1,000 more apprenticeships than last year. Independent training providers increased their market share to 65 per cent, up from 62 per cent.
Across all ages, level 3 early years educator was the most popular apprenticeship with 11,500 starts. This was followed by level 7 senior leader, level 7 accountancy then level 5 operations manager. The latter three of these standards have been earmarked for defunding.
Foundation apprenticeships
Updated figures show 109 young people started a foundation apprenticeship between their launch in August and January. Of those, 40 started between August and October, up from the initially reported 36.
Onsite trades remained the most popular foundation apprenticeship, with 39 starts. Engineering and manufacturing followed with 33, then building services engineering with 30. Health and social care had six, while just one young person had started the hardware, network and infrastructure foundation apprenticeship.
There remained zero starts on the finishing trades and software and data courses.
New foundation apprenticeships in retail and hospitality are due to launch in April.
South Devon College claimed the highest number of starts (26) followed by GEM Partnership (18) and then Exeter and North Devon College (17).
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