Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship spaces were available in each academic year since 2016-17.

Apprenticeships offer a high-quality and popular route into nearly 700 occupations from entry level to expert roles. The table below shows the number of apprenticeship vacancies that were advertised and the number of apprenticeship applications that were submitted through the ‘Find An Apprenticeship’ (FAA) service in each academic year from 2016/17 to 2022/23. Due to the data protection policy in place prior to 2021/22, the department does not hold an accurate record of the number of applications submitted between 2016/17 and 2020/21.

Employers can choose to advertise apprenticeship vacancies through their own websites, recruitment agencies or local job centre instead of, or in addition to, the FAA service. As a result, the actual number of apprenticeship vacancies and applications will be higher.

Apprenticeship vacancies can now be browsed on the University and Colleges Admissions Service website and later this year they will also be able to use the service to apply for apprenticeships. In January 2024, the department also launched the ‘It all starts with skills’ campaign which is encouraging people to find out more about the different apprenticeship and wider skills programmes available.