Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprentices were (a) added to and (b) went live on the Apprenticeship Service between 1 April 2021 and 30 November 2021.

As of 7 February 2022, the number of commitments reported on the apprenticeship service with planned training start dates between 01 April 2021 and 30 November 2021 was 255,000.

The number of apprenticeships with start dates between 01 April 2021 and 30 November 2021 was 251,400, as confirmed by providers reporting on the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) in January.

It should be noted, commitments on the apprenticeship service are where potential apprentices, who are expected to go on to start an apprenticeship, have been recorded on the apprenticeship service system. Commitments may be recorded or amended on the apprenticeship service system after the training start date has passed and therefore data should be treated as provisional.

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.

Apprenticeship service commitments and monthly apprenticeship starts figures are published in the ‘Apprenticeship Service and monthly transparency data’ section of the apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publication, found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.