Apprenticeship starts in small businesses are down from 2016-17, whereas starts at large, levy-paying business are up, according to Department of Education statistics released today.
The data shows that apprenticeships were more likely to occur within large employers, with 61 per cent starting at companies with more than 250 employees. In 2016-17, 46 per cent of apprenticeship starts occurred at large employers.
Small businesses have not fared so well: the number of apprentices employed by small employers has decreased from 37 per cent in 2016-17 to 27 per cent in 2018-19.
The DfE says that this is due to falls in the number of starts among small (down 40 per cent) and medium-sized employers (down 45 per cent), and a small increase in starts among large employers (up by 8 per cent).
Experts within the sector have predicted that apprenticeship starts at SMEs could fall even further.
In October last year, the Learning and Work Institute warned that SME apprenticeships could drop by as much as 75,000 without any reform to the apprenticeship levy.
And in January this year, an Association of Education and Learning Providers survey found that more than a third of apprenticeship training providers with a non-levy government contract have stopped or significantly reduced the recruitment of apprentices for smaller employers due to a shortfall in funding.
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The data also looks at starts per sector and found that mining and quarrying, information and communication, professional/scientific and public administration apprenticeships have all bucked the trend when it comes to the number of apprenticeship starts in comparison with pre-levy years.
The statistics show that while most sectors had fewer apprenticeship starts in 2018-19 when compared with 2016-17, the above four categories had an increase in starts.
The data also reveals that most sectors have experienced an increase in starts between 2017-18 and 2018-19, with transportation and storage and energy utilities seeing their starts increase by 23 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
