FOI/202600504882 · FOI · not held
Apprenticeship funding data: FOI release
Information requested
Apprenticeship funding, numbers of apprenticeship starts and in training (with requested breakdowns), from 2015/16 to 2024/25 inclusive.
Response
1. The total annual budget allocated by the Scottish Government for apprenticeship programs (including Modern, Foundation, and Graduate Apprenticeships).
Information held by the Scottish Government in relation to the annual budget allocated by the Scottish government for apprenticeship programmes is provided for 2019/20 to 2024/25.
Table 1.1 Total Apprenticeship funding 2019/20 – 2024/25
Academic year Total Apprenticeship funding (£m) 2019/20 158 2020/21 171 2021/22 175 2022/23 172 2023/24 185 2024/25 198
Note: Figures are those provided to the Scottish Government by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS), Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Scottish Funding Council and are rounded to the nearest £, million (cash terms).
The Scottish Government does not have the information prior to this, between 2015/16 to 2018/19.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.
Skills Development Scotland is allocated Grant in Aid funding each year which is used to deliver commitments as set out in the corresponding letter of Ministerial guidance. These are published by Skills Development Scotland on their corporate website.
Funding includes provision for Modern Apprenticeships as well as other commitments which include national training programmes, Foundation Apprenticeships, Scotland’s Careers Information, Advice and Guidance service and Skills Development Scotland’s staffing and running costs. It is the responsibility of Skills Development Scotland and their board to allocate funding to programmes in order to deliver Ministerial priorities.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
As the Public Body responsible for delivering the Modern Apprenticeship programme, you may wish to contact Skills Development Scotland via FOI@sds.co.uk who may be able to assist with this more detailed breakdown of annual Modern Apprenticeship spend.
2. A breakdown of this funding by apprenticeship type (e.g. how much was allocated for Modern Apprenticeships vs. Graduate Apprenticeships).
Information held by the Scottish Government in relation to the annual breakdown of money invested at a national level allocated for Foundation Apprenticeships, Modern Apprenticeships and Graduate apprenticeships is set out below since 2019/20. As noted under answer 1, we do not hold information prior to this date.
Table 2.1: Split of Foundation Apprenticeships (FA) Funding across Skills Development Scotland (SDS), Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) from 2019/20 to 2024/25
Academic year SFC Funding (£m) SAAS Funding (£m) SDS Funding (£m) Total 2019/20 - - 14 14 2020/21 9 - 15 24 2021/22 9 - 12 21 2022/23 9 - 9 18 2023/24 10 - 8 18 2024/25 10 - 8 18
Note: Figures are those provided to the Scottish Government by SAAS, SDS and SFC and are rounded to the nearest £, million (cash terms).
Table 2.2: Split of Modern Apprenticeship (MA) Funding Across Skills Development Scotland (SDS), Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) from 2019/20 to 2023/24
Academic year SFC Funding (£m) SAAS Funding (£m) SDS Funding (£m) Total 2019/20 50** - 82 132 2020/21 50** - 80* 130 2021/22 50** - 78 128 2022/23 50** - 76 126 2023/24 50** - 84 134 2024/25 50** - 91 141
*The £80m MA figure includes £19m for Apprenticeship Employer Grant **The figure of £50m funding for MAs is notional and based on the level of MA activity in college’s Further Education Statistics return applied to our overall levels of funding. Note: Figures are those provided to the Scottish Government by SAAS, SDS and SFC and are rounded to the nearest £, million (cash terms).
Table 2.3: Split of Graduate Apprenticeship Funding across Skills Development Scotland (SDS), Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Student Awards Agency from 2019/20 to 2024/25
Academic year SFC Funding (£m) SAAS Funding (£m) SDS Funding (£m) Total 2019/20 - - 12 12 2020/21 - - 17 17 2021/22 7 2 17 26 2022/23 15 3 10 28 2023/24 23 5 6 34 2024/25 30 6 3 39
Note: Figures are those provided to the Scottish Government by SAAS, SDS and SFC and are rounded to the nearest £, million (cash terms).
Note: SAAS provides tuition fees only for Graduate Apprenticeships. SAAS do not provide funding for the other apprenticeship schemes. This funding was only provided from 2021-22 onwards.
3. The total number of apprenticeships starts successfully funded and commenced in each year, broken down by:
a. Apprenticeship level (e.g., SCQF levels).
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the Scottish Government does not have Modern Apprenticeship starts data broken down by SCQF levels between 2015/16 and 2017/18.
Skills Development Scotland publish all Modern Apprenticeship starts on their website back to 2007-08. SDS background notes state that: “The majority of Vocational Qualifications (VQs) were aligned to SCQF levels in 2017/18, to support a transition to reporting MA statistics by SCQF level from Q1 2018/19. Through time, there will be no starts, in training, achievement or leaver data at VQ level as frameworks are fully transitioned to SCQF levels.” Data for 2015/16-2017/18 is reported at VQ level.
Further information is available at the following link: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/publications-statistics/statistics/modernapprenticeships. Please note that data for 2007-08 was collated by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise as SDS was formed in April 2008.
The total number of Graduate Apprenticeship entrants by SCQF level is not available. The GA report provides breakdowns by subject (framework) and not a total by SCQF level. Data on Graduate Apprenticeships is available from 2017/18 onwards. Further information on graduate apprenticeships can be accessed within the most recent report: Graduate-Apprenticeship-Report_2022-23.pdf
Foundation Apprenticeship data is provided as available from 2016/17 onwards. Further information on Foundation Apprenticeships can be found in the most recent report: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/rsbdfvlc/foundation-apprenticeship-report- 2023.pdf.
b. Apprenticeship type (Modern, Foundation, Graduate).
Please note that these are the most recently published available statistics.
Table 3.1: Total number of Modern Apprenticeship starts from 2015/16 – 2024/25
Financial year Number of MA starts 2015/16 25,818 2016/17 26,262 2017/18 27,145 2018/19 27,270 2019/20 27,875 2020/21 18,655 2021/22 25,401 2022/23 25,447 2023/24 25,365 2024/25 25,507
Table 3.2: Modern Apprenticeship starts by SCQF level 2018/19 to 2024/25
SCQF Level 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 20223/24 2024/25 5 7,671 6,999 3,467 5,261 4,849 4,326 4,074 6 10,421 10,793 7,430 9,896 10,038 10,444 8,319 7 7,216 7,751 5,716 7,941 8,217 8,121 10,384 8 723 811 627 749 937 1,078 1,217 9 932 1,181 1,085 1,206 564 539 540 10 32 49 * * 600 617 702 11 169 279 279 256 242 240 271 VQ3 106 12 * * - - - Total 27,270 27,875 18,655 25,401 25,447 25,365 25,507
*To ensure confidentiality, disclosure control is applied where figures are less than 5 or where such small numbers can be identified through differencing.
Table 3.3: Total number Foundation Apprenticeship starts by academic year 2016/17 – 2022/23
Financial year Number of FA starts 2016/17 346 2017/18 1,244 2018/19 1,535 2019/20 3,889 2020/21 4,235 2021/22 4,103 2022/23 4,655
Table 3.4: Total number of Foundation Apprenticeship starts by academic year 2016/17 – 2022/23 by SCQF level
Year / Cohort SCQF level Total enrolments 2016/17 L6 346 2017/18 L6 1,244 2018/19 L6 1,535 2019/20 L6 3,450 L4/5 439 2020/21 L6 2,975 L4/5 1,260 2021/22 L6 2,496 L4/5 1,607 2022/23 L6 2,500 L4/5 2,160
Table 3.5: Total number of Graduate Apprenticeship entrants, by academic year 2017/18 – 2022/23:
Academic year Number of GA entrants 2017/18 277 2018/19 920 2019/20 1,160 2020/21 1,169 2021/22 1,166 2022/23 1,140
Note: Total number of graduate apprenticeship entrants by SCQF level is not available. The GA report provides breakdowns by subject (framework) and not a total by SCQF level.
4. The total number of apprentices in training at the end of each financial year.
Table 4.1: Total number of Modern Apprenticeships in training at the end of each financial year 2015/16 – 2024/25
Financial year Number of MAs in training 2015/16 36,371 2016/17 37,086 2017/18 38,485 2018/19 37,765 2019/20 38,030 2020/21 36,928 2021/22 38,504 2022/23 39,006 2023/24 38,607 2024/25 39,043
The statistics for GAs and FAs are reported by academic year, rather than by financial year. The number of GAs and FAs in training are available in the publications at the following links:
Foundation Apprenticeships statistics - Skills Development Scotland Graduate Apprenticeships - Skills Development Scotland Graduate Apprenticeships - Scottish Funding Council
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
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