Fewer young people are on apprenticeships than in 2015 — and they are doing different ones
Apprenticeship participation among 16–21 year olds in England has fallen by around a fifth since 2015. Intermediate apprenticeships have collapsed; degree apprenticeships have gone from almost nothing to more than 26,000.
England · ages 16–21 · academic age · national population · calendar years 2015–2025 · DfE Participation 16–21
What the data show
Total apprenticeship participation among 16–21 year olds fell from 5.94% in 2015 to 4.64% in 2025. The steepest single drop was in 2020, from 5.33% to 4.42%; the rate has been broadly flat since.
The fall is concentrated among the youngest. For ages 16–18, participation went from 6.46% to 4.12%. For ages 18–21 it went from 6.22% to 5.38% – a much smaller change.
The composition changed more than the total. Intermediate (level 2) apprenticeships fell from 134,304 participants aged 16–21 to 50,016. Advanced (level 3) was broadly stable, at 99,594 then 107,813. Higher and degree apprenticeships grew from a combined 5,074 to 40,556.
Possible explanations
These are possibilities, not findings. Nothing in this release establishes why the pattern above exists.
- The introduction of the apprenticeship levy and the standards reforms over this period changed what employers offer and at what level.
- Some level 2 provision may have been replaced by other level 2 routes that are counted elsewhere in this release rather than as apprenticeships.
- 2020 sits in the middle of the series and the sharpest fall is in that year, which is consistent with disruption to employer recruitment, though this release cannot separate that from the longer-run trend.
What the data cannot tell us
Why it matters
“Apprenticeship numbers are up” and “fewer young people are doing apprenticeships” can both be true at once, because they are different measures over different populations. For anyone advising 16 year olds, the level 2 route that existed a decade ago is now substantially smaller.
Open the interactive view behind this chart, where every figure carries its source, population and age definition.
Sources and methodology
Department for Education, Participation in education, training and employment age 16 to 21, 2025 release, calendar year series 2015–2025. England, national population, academic age (age at 31 August at the start of the academic year). Percentages are as published by DfE; differences between two rates are given as percentage-point differences. Where DfE has not published a figure, none is shown.