Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of students studying STEM-related courses in further education colleges in each year since 2010.

The answer provided is the number of learning aims (i.e. courses, programmes, qualifications and units) students have taken in STEM-related further education (FE) sector subject areas.

Many FE students, especially 16 to 18 year olds, take a single substantive qualification, but the total number of aims will count people more than once if for example; they progress to another course during a year or are undertaking a range of qualifications in different subjects, a proportion of which could be STEM-related.

The attached table provide the number of aims delivered on STEM-related courses in education and training provision in England for each academic year since 2010/11, and covers all FE providers. In addition, there is a table on apprenticeship starts by academic year. Both tables include all age students.