Major increase confirmed in starts on new apprenticeship standards

• Starts on new apprenticeships increased six-fold in 2017/18
• There were 163,700 starts in 2017/18 on apprenticeship standards, up from 24,600 the previous academic year

The number of people who started on new apprenticeships increased six-fold last academic year, latest figures have shown.

There were 163,700 starts in 2017/18 on apprenticeship standards, which are developed by groups of employers with the Institute for Apprenticeships. This was a huge increase from 24,600 the previous academic year. The figures were revealed in the Department for Education’s final year data published today.

Ben Rowland Co-Founder of  Arch Apprentices, said: 

Once again we see that the number of apprenticeship starts have risen, and with our experience of dealing with hundreds of levy paying organisation we believe this is down to people figuring out how to make the best of it.

The good news is that the apprenticeships that are growing are all high quality programmes, and so people should be really excited by the trajectory of apprenticeship starts

Sir Gerry Berragan, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships, said:

I am really pleased that there has been a major increase in the number of starts on standards-based apprenticeships, which shows that good progress is being made with the reform programme.

While the number of starts on apprenticeships overall has gone down, this is because of a drop in take-up in the older apprenticeship frameworks, which will no longer be funded from September 2020.

This reflects the significant efforts of employers through Traiblazer groups to develop 379 new apprenticeship standards since the reforms began.

Of the 163,700 starts on standards, 107,500 were levy supported starts, 36,800 were aged under 19, and 127,000 were aged 19 and over.

There have now been 193,100 starts on apprenticeship standards since their introduction in September 2014.

There were 375,800 overall apprenticeship starts reported in 2017/18, compared with 494,900 in 2016/17, according to the latest figures.

The Government announced in late 2013 that new apprenticeship standards would be developed by employers to better meet their skills needs.  Companies were invited to come together in sector-based groups called Trailblazers to develop them.

These standards-based apprenticeships are replacing older apprenticeships frameworks.