The Recent Evolution of Apprenticeships

The Sutton Trust has published a report focusing on the take up of apprenticeships since 2015.

The availability of apprenticeships has been severely affected by the pandemic. The report covers how apprenticeships have evolved in recent years. The report evaluates whether there have been changes in participation across groups, drawing particular attention to changes among disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. 

Key Findings

• The number and make up of apprenticeships has changed considerably since 2017. There was a dramatic decline in numbers between 2017 and 2018, after the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy, and new regulations on the quality and duration of apprenticeships. There was a further decline during the pandemic, and the most recent government data indicates that apprenticeship starts have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. 
• Level 2 apprenticeships have dropped the most, with a rise in the number and share of apprenticeships at higher and degree level. Apprenticeships in construction and planning, as well as information and communication technology have increased, while the share of apprenticeships in retail has fallen substantially. 
• While in 2015, apprenticeships were more likely to be taken up by people from more deprived areas, this is now equal across quintiles of local deprivation, which seems to have been driven by the changes in the composition of apprenticeships by level. More prosperous areas have benefited disproportionately from the expansion of Degree Apprenticeships. 
• In January 2020, about 17% of students were eligible for free school meals. Among apprentices under 30, this is much lower: 13% at Level 2; 9% at Level 3; 7% at Level 4/5 and 5% at Level 6 (or degree). This compares to 6.7% of those entering university. Fewer degree apprentices are eligible for free school meals than those attending university.
• Young people have not been the main beneficiaries of the increased availability of Higher and Degree Apprenticeships. Those over the age of 25 account for the vast majority of those undertaking Higher Apprenticeships and over half of those undertaking Degree Apprenticeships.
• It may be of concern that 19-24-year-olds have not benefited as much as those aged 25 or more from the expansion of apprenticeships at Level 4 and above since returns to apprenticeships are typically higher for younger age groups. 
• Ethnic minorities are also under-represented in apprenticeship starts overall. When broken down by age group, this under-representation is strong for 16-18 year olds (White British account for 90 per cent of starts) and for 19-24 year olds (White British account for 83 per cent of starts), but not for those aged 25 and over, where the distribution by ethnic grouping is much closer to that of the wider working age population (White British account for 74 per cent of starts)

Recommendations 

The Sutton Trust set out the following recommendations for education, business and government in order to improve access to apprenticeships for young people and in particular those with protected characteristics.

• Action should be taken by the government and businesses to address the large decline in overall apprenticeship starts seen over the last few years, with a specific focus on access to apprenticeships in the most deprived areas of the country.
• While the growth of degree apprenticeships in recent years is welcome, action should be taken to further boost the supply of higher and degree-level apprenticeships targeted at young people, and advertised externally on portals such as UCAS or Find an Apprenticeship.
• The apprenticeship levy should be reviewed, with social mobility and widening participation as an explicit criteria. The balance of apprenticeships across age groups, levels, those with equivalent qualifications and existing staff versus new starters should be examined. The spending of levy money on access activities should be both permitted and promoted, including bursaries, outreach, recruitment and travel expenses for disadvantaged apprentices.
• Measures should be taken to rebalance the profile of apprenticeships back towards those who are younger and more disadvantaged. This could include:
• Requiring employers to ‘top up’ levy funding for certain categories of apprentice, or otherwise incentivising the creation of apprenticeships most conducive to increasing opportunities for groups who need it most.
• A maximum salary ceiling for levy funded apprentices, meaning that limited public funding is concentrated on providing opportunities for those who would not otherwise be able to afford training.
• In order to improve transparency and ensure that apprenticeships are delivering for social mobility, levy employers should be required to publish anonymised statistics on the age, level, socio-economic background and salary level of apprentices, along with the proportion of new and existing staff benefits.
• Schools should be supported to provide good quality careers advice on apprenticeships, and the information gap among schools and teachers should be addressed with better access to information and resources.
• Universities should step up access and outreach activities for degree apprenticeships, working in collaboration with employers and harnessing the experience, skills and resources of both.