The next step

Of statistics

[Table]

http www apprenticeships org uk

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Apprenticeships - will they work for your company?

Training success

The last two decades have seen successive governments launch scheme after scheme aimed at encouraging directors and company owners to take on and train youngsters. However, the latest statistics recently released by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) show that while these have achieved some success, 26% of all apprentices drop out before their training has been completed. But apparently these statistics don’t tell the full story.

Reasons for failure

The SFA says the drop-out rate takes account of all those who don’t achieve a qualification or certificate even though they might have completed some, or even all, stages of their training. They list a number of reasons for the high failure rate, but the fact is if you’re a director of a small or medium-sized company, you won’t want to commit to training someone when there’s a one-in-four chance of wasting both your time and money. However, it isn’t always this bad.

More statistics

We asked the SFA to provide us with the apprenticeship success rate figures across industry sectors and all age groups. These show that, for example, nearly 83% of apprentices in the IT industry complete their training successfully, while in arts, media and publishing the success rate is only 59.8%. What’s more, apprentices aged 25 or over succeed more often than their younger counterparts.

Tip. Refer to our table of official statistics to check the odds on whether an apprentice employed in your company’s industry sector is more or less likely to successfully complete their training.

Age versus cost

Employing an older apprentice may improve your chances of success a little but government financial assistance with training costs is tilted firmly in favour of employing youngsters.

Tip. Although you must pay an apprentice at least the National Minimum Wage, this is only £2.50 per hour for those aged under 19, compared to £5.93 for those 21 and over. Also, the course fees for the academic side of the apprenticeship are fully paid by the government for those aged under 19. For those between 18 and 25 years old, 50% of their course fees will be paid, and for older apprentices the government will make varying contributions of less than 50% depending on the circumstances.

Conclusion

The success rate for apprentices might not look great but there are no comparable figures for trainee staff outside of apprenticeship schemes. Their success rate may be even poorer. Our advice is simply to weigh up the advantages of financial assistance, success rates and your company’s needs, and if you would like to give apprenticeships a go register with the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) (see The next step). It’s a simple process that can be done over the phone or online.

For the table of statistics (CD 12.16.07A) and for a weblink to the NAS website (CD 12.16.07B), visit http://companydirector.indicator.co.uk.