Every apprenticeship release leads with three numbers. They answer different questions and are not interchangeable.
| Measure | The question it answers | England, 2025/26 * |
|---|---|---|
| Starts | How many apprenticeships began in the period? | 308,770 |
| Participation | How many learners were on an apprenticeship at any point? | 735,500 |
| Achievements | How many apprenticeships were completed and passed? | 146,210 |
* Provisional, August 2025 to April 2026.
Why participation is the biggest number
Participation is larger than starts because apprenticeships last more than a year. Someone who started in 2024 is still participating in 2025 and possibly 2026. Participation therefore reflects several years of starts working through the system, which also makes it a slower-moving and steadier measure.
Which to use when
- How many people are doing apprenticeships? → Participation. Starts and achievements count programmes, and a learner on two apprenticeships is counted twice.
- Is recruitment picking up or slowing? → Starts. It is the leading indicator.
- How many people finished? → Achievements – but read the next point.
Achievements are not an achievement rate
This is a distinct and very common confusion. Achievements is a count. The achievement rate is a percentage with a completely different denominator: achievers divided by everyone who left a programme that year.
In 2024/25 there were 198,330 achievements and an achievement rate of 65.4%. Both are correct, and they answer different questions about different groups of people. See achievement rates explained.
One more thing that trips people up
You cannot follow a cohort through these three numbers. The 308,770 starts in the current period are not the same people as the 146,210 achievements in the same period – the achievers mostly started two or three years earlier. Drawing a funnel from starts to achievements within one year produces a completion rate that is simply wrong.