The apprenticeship system in England has changed substantially. The modern picture is not teenagers leaving school for Level 2 craft apprenticeships. Higher-level apprenticeships have grown rapidly, more than half of starts are now by people aged 25 or over, and the mix of occupational areas keeps shifting.
Starts are increasing again
There were 353,500 apprenticeship starts in 2024/25, up 4.1% from 339,580 in 2023/24.
The provisional figures show a further rise. Between August 2025 and April 2026, 308,770 apprenticeships started, against 284,190 over the same period a year earlier – an increase of 8.7%.
That is a real recovery, and it is not a record. Starts in 2024/25 were still around 10% below the 2018/19 level of 393,380. The longer-term story is more complicated than “apprenticeships are at a record high”, and nothing on this site says that.
Apprenticeships are increasingly higher level
This is the single biggest structural change. In 2017/18 the split of starts was roughly 43% intermediate, 44% advanced and 13% higher. By 2024/25:
| Level band | Starts, 2024/25 | Share of starts | Share, 2017/18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intermediate (Level 2) | 65,680 | 18.6% | 43.0% |
| Advanced (Level 3) | 147,090 | 41.6% | 44.2% |
| Higher (Levels 4–7) | 140,730 | 39.8% | 12.8% |
Roughly four in ten starts are now at higher-education level. The provisional 2025/26 data shows higher apprenticeship starts up another 13.6%.
What is a higher apprenticeship →Level 6 and 7 have grown particularly quickly
In 2024/25 there were 60,340 Level 6 and Level 7 starts, or 17.1% of all starts.
DfE's detailed-level series in this build begins in 2020/21. Over that window, Level 6 starts rose from 19,630 to 26,780 and Level 7 from 19,570 to 33,560 – Level 7 growing faster, and overtaking Level 6.
Level 7 growth then met a policy change. From 1 January 2026, government funding for new Level 7 starts was restricted, principally to apprentices aged 16 to 21, plus care leavers aged under 25 at the start of the apprenticeship and apprentices with an Education, Health and Care plan aged under 25 at the start. The change lands part-way through the August 2025 to April 2026 reporting period, so the current Level 7 figures straddle it. Movements from here on should not be read as employer or learner preference without accounting for the funding change.
What changed for Level 7 in 2026 →Most apprentices are not under 19
This is probably the statistic that most challenges the popular image of apprenticeships. Final 2024/25 data shows 21.2% of starts were by under-19s and 51.3% by people aged 25 or over.
The provisional 2025/26 figures show the same shape:
| Age group | Starts, Aug 2025–Apr 2026 | Share | Change on the same nine months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 19 | 63,530 | 20.6% | −5.4% |
| 19 to 24 | 83,570 | 27.1% | +5.1% |
| 25 and over | 161,670 | 52.4% | +17.5% |
Apprenticeships therefore serve a much wider labour-market role than providing a post-GCSE route. They are used by school leavers, by young adults, by career changers and – in large numbers – by people already employed who are developing higher-level skills.
Are apprenticeships mainly for school leavers →Under-19 starts have recently fallen
While total provisional starts rose, under-19 starts fell by 5.4% against the same period a year earlier. Over the same comparison, 19–24 starts rose 5.1% and 25-plus starts rose 17.5%.
This distinction matters. A rise in total apprenticeship starts does not mean more school leavers are entering apprenticeships. In this period, the opposite happened at the youngest end.
One thing this page will not say is that the under-19 share is the lowest on record. It is not: it was lower in 2020/21. The build fails if any page makes that claim.
Which subject areas are largest?
Business, Administration and Law is the largest broad sector subject area. It accounted for 31.8% of starts in 2024/25 – 112,500 starts – and recorded 95,980 in the provisional August–April data, again the largest.
Health, Public Services and Care is the next largest area, and Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies, Construction, Digital Technology and Retail and Commercial Enterprise all account for significant numbers.
How do I find an apprenticeship in one of these areas →Digital apprenticeships have grown
On the occupational-route measure, Digital apprenticeship starts rose from 14,760 in 2020/21 to 31,410 in 2024/25 – more than double in four years.
That does not mean every digital occupation grew at the same rate. It illustrates how the apprenticeship mix moves as employer demand and the set of available standards develop.
Participation is different from starts
A start records a new apprenticeship programme beginning. Participation counts learners taking part in an apprenticeship at some point during the period. Because many apprenticeships last longer than one academic year, participation can move differently from starts.
Final participation was 761,480 in 2024/25. In the first three quarters of 2025/26 it stood at 735,500, up 4.6% on the equivalent point a year earlier.
A further caution: a start is not a person. One individual can start more than one apprenticeship, so the starts figure counts programmes rather than unique apprentices. See starts, participation and achievements.
Achievements are also increasing
Final 2024/25 data recorded 198,330 apprenticeship achievements, the highest number since 2017/18. The overall achievement rate for 2024/25 was 65.4%, up +4.9 pts on the previous year.
In provisional in-year data, achievements reached 146,210 by April 2026, 14.0% above the comparable period a year earlier.
Achievements and achievement rates are not the same thing. Achievements are a count; the rate is programme aims achieved divided by the number started, on DfE's Hybrid End Year basis. They can move in opposite directions. See achievement rates explained.
Geography matters, and raw counts mislead
Apprenticeship activity varies between regions, and raw start counts largely reflect population size. On a population-adjusted basis the ordering changes sharply: London has the lowest starts rate of the English regions at 643 per 100,000 working-age residents, while South West has the highest at 1,115 – even though London records 40,380 starts against South West's 39,790.
A low rate is not in itself evidence of a failing, and a high one is not evidence of success. Regions differ in industrial mix, in the age structure of their population and in the balance of alternative post-16 provision. The Explorer is built to make those differences investigable rather than to rank places.
Explore apprenticeships by place →What the data does not tell us
Apprenticeship statistics can tell us how many starts occurred, who started, at what level, in which broad subject or occupational area, where, and how participation and achievements moved.
They cannot tell us why an individual chose an apprenticeship, whether every vacancy was high quality, the precise value to each learner, what would have happened otherwise, or why a particular trend changed. Use the data to identify patterns and questions, not to treat every association as a cause.