The Success of Apprenticeships

17Apprenticeships in England

17.1. Introduction

The UK government has made apprenticeships a high-profile area of government policy. One manifestation of this is a specific target to have 3 million apprenticeship starts between 2015 and 2020. Another is the introduction of an apprenticeship levy (payable by large firms) to fund more apprenticeships. Although the target and levy are applicable across the whole of the UK, education and skills is one of the areas of government devolved across nations of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The way in which the system operates, and the nomenclature, differs across the four nations and recent reform has made them increasingly different. In this short chapter, we focus on the system as it operates in England (for which we have the best data). While in most countries apprenticeships are thought of as a program of work and study for young people, as they transition from full-time education into the labor market, this is not the case for England where about half of those starting an apprenticeship are above 25 years of age. This was not always the case (and is not the case in Scotland, for example) and is a controversial aspect of the system. Another prominent feature of apprenticeships in England is that until recently, almost all were at a level deemed equivalent to lower or upper secondary education. In the last few years, higher and degree apprenticeships have emerged, although they only account for a small percentage ...