What the data shows
In 2017/18, intermediate apprenticeships at Level 2 were the largest part of the programme, with 161,390 starts against 48,150 at higher levels. By 2024/25 the positions had reversed: 65,680 intermediate starts and 140,730 higher. Higher apprenticeships have grown 192.3% while intermediate has fallen 59.3%.
In the current provisional period, higher apprenticeships are up a further 13.6% on the same nine months last year, to 126,660 starts – 41.0% of all starts.
Inside ‘higher’, the growth is spread across the band rather than concentrated at the top. In the current period there were 41,430 Level 4 starts, 31,290 at Level 5, 25,140 at Level 6 and 28,800 at Level 7. Level 7 is now larger than Level 6.
Interpretation
The single most common error in reporting this is to treat “higher” and “degree” as the same thing. They are not.
Higher apprenticeship means Levels 4 to 7 – 126,660 starts in the current period. Degree apprenticeship means the standard includes a mandatory degree – 22,990 starts, or 7.4% of all starts and only 18.2% of higher apprenticeships. Even Level 6 and 7 together (53,940 starts) exceed the degree apprenticeship count, because a Level 7 apprenticeship can be a professional qualification with no degree attached.
The second thing to hold on to is who is starting these. Higher apprenticeships recruit adults: at Level 5, 91% of starts are by someone aged 25 or over. The growth of higher apprenticeships is therefore closely connected to the increasingly adult age profile of apprenticeship starts.
What the data does not show is why. A frequently offered explanation is that levy-paying employers find higher-level standards a better use of their funds; the release records that 67.3% of current starts are supported by levy funds, but it does not link that to level, so the explanation remains an inference rather than a finding.
A policy change sits inside this period
From 1 January 2026 the government restricted funding for Level 7 apprenticeships 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. Anyone who started a Level 7 apprenticeship before 1 January 2026 continues to be funded through to completion. Employers may still fund Level 7 apprenticeships themselves.
This lands part-way through the August 2025 to April 2026 period the figures above describe. Level 7 is not a small corner of the system: there were 28,800 Level 7 starts in this period, more than Level 6, and 67.3% of them were by someone aged 25 or over – precisely the group the restriction affects.
The consequence for anyone reading the next release is direct. If Level 7 starts fall, that is not by itself evidence that employers or learners have cooled on them. A funding rule changed. Any analysis that reports the movement without reporting the rule change is attributing policy to preference.
Who is taking them
The sex profile shifts markedly up the levels. Level 2 starts are 60% male. Level 5 starts are 70% female – the most lopsided level in either direction. Level 4 is almost exactly even.
This is mostly a fact about occupations rather than about levels. Level 2 is weighted towards construction, engineering and service occupations; Level 5 towards care, health and education standards. The level is the label; the occupational mix is the cause.
Delivery is also concentrated. Private providers account for 68.4% of all starts in the current period, general FE colleges for 16.8%, and the ‘other’ category – which since November 2025 covers higher education institutions, NHS trusts, the military and government departments – for 13.4%.
Why it matters
For universities and colleges, higher and degree apprenticeships are a genuine growth area and one of the few parts of post-18 provision expanding. For employers, the numbers show where the system has capacity.
For a 17-year-old told that “degree apprenticeships are booming”, the honest picture is narrower. There are 22,990 degree apprenticeship starts in the current period across all ages, and 3,380 Level 6 starts by under-19s. These are competitive, concentrated in particular occupations and employers, and are not a mass route out of sixth form. Saying so is more useful than the enthusiasm.