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12 April 2026

Tag: statistics

Government no longer backing its own 3m apprenticeship manifesto commitment

The Department for Education has, for the first time, refused to commit to its 3m apprenticeship starts target, after a spokesperson for the prime minister dodged the question this morning. The target has been included in the past two Conservative party election manifestos, but with starts falling it’s slipping ever further out of reach. At […]

Public sector apprenticeships on the rise, new figures suggest

New figures published today suggest that public sector apprenticeships are on the rise, after the government introduced a recruitment target of 2.3 per cent. According to the latest provisional monthly Education and Skills Funding Agency apprenticeship statistics, 43,400 out of a total of 338,400 starts between May 2017 and April 2018 – or 13 per […]

Monthly update: apprenticeship starts down 39 per cent in April

Apprenticeship starts for April are down 39 per cent, compared with the same period in 2016. There have been 24,100 starts recorded so far in April 2018, compared with around 39,400 in April 2016 according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s monthly apprenticeship statistics update, published this morning. The 2016 figures are final, whereas the […]

Open letter sees government on defensive before apprenticeship figures announced

The government is on the defensive one day before the latest apprenticeship figures appear, expected to show a continued year-on-year drop. An open letter signed by skills minister Anne Milton, Institute for Apprenticeships boss Sir Gerry Berragan (pictured above) and dozens of senior figures from business schools, businesses and other organisations wants the sector to […]

No sign of hoped-for levied apprenticeships surge in latest statistics

There is no sign of the major upturn in levied apprenticeships that the government has been praying for, according to the latest statistics. There were 13,910 commitments made through the apprenticeship service in October, down from 27,130 the previous month, the Department for Education has said. A fall-back is normal after the September surge – […]

Large drop in number of standards lacking end-point assessors

The proportion of learners on apprenticeship standards without an approved assessment organisation is dropping rapidly, according to new figures. Statistics published in October showed 42 per cent of all starts (1,790 out of 4,240) until July had no assessment organisation to choose from – a situation that former top skills civil servant Dr Sue Pember […]