STEM Apprenticeships on the Rise

Apprenticeships have been around for a long time. According to the House of Commons library, the first apprenticeships can be traced back as far as the Middle Ages. Fast forward to 2023 and apprenticeships have never been more relevant or important. They remain at the heart of the vocational education system and provide excellent career pathways into STEM.

The pandemic, Brexit and the need to decarbonise and reach net zero by 2050 have all highlighted the UK’s skills and workforce shortages and as a result have shone a spotlight on our education and skills system. It has become clear that a thriving engineering and technology workforce of the future for our success in areas, such as net zero, life science, transport, food sustainability and software relies upon young people having access to and participating in technical routes like apprenticeships. We urgently need to increase the number and diversity of young people taking technical routes into engineering, manufacturing and technology, such as apprenticeships, to ensure that we have the workforce to succeed as a country now and in the future. Against this backdrop it is clear to see why the UK needs thousands of new engineers and technicians entering the UK workforce year on year, doing what they do best – problem-solving and innovating.

Just when there is an urgent need to grow the number of engineering and technology apprentices, the numbers are not where we need them to be. In response to the Department for Education releasing new apprenticeships data at the end of last year, Engineering UK has run an analysis on the data related to the engineering and technology sector:

Engineering-related apprenticeship starts have increased at a greater rate than all other subject areas, increasing 25.8% in 2020/21, compared to 8.6% across other areas. However, engineering-related apprenticeship starts are still down 5.5% since 2018/19, and down 12.3% since 2016/17. These are lower declines than all sector subject areas – down 11.2% since 2018/19 and 29.4% since 2016/17.

Comparing engineering-related apprenticeships in England, Scotland and Wales, Scotland has the highest percentage of engineering-related starts and has increased its share of all apprenticeships from 39% in 2017/18 to 45% in 2020/21. This compares to just one in five (20%) apprenticeship starts being engineering-related in Wales, and close to a quarter (24%) of all apprenticeship starts in England.

In Northern Ireland ‘participation on apprenticeships’ is measured rather than starts, so the impact of the pandemic may not be reflected as much due to the delay. Engineering-related apprenticeship frameworks comprised 69.8% of all the frameworks in Northern Ireland in 2021. There were 7,102 apprentices participating on engineering-related apprenticeships in Northern Ireland in 2021. This represented an increase of 31.2% compared to numbers in 2019. The most popular engineering-related apprenticeship in 2021 in Northern Ireland was Electro-technical, with 1,796 starts in 2021.

Apprenticeship Diversity

• The proportion of female engineering-related apprenticeship starts has been improving (6.1% since 2016/17). However only 14.2% of engineering-related apprenticeship starts are female in England, 11.3% in Scotland and 7.4% in Wales, compared to 50.8% across other subject areas. The increase in female participation in engineering-related apprenticeships is being mostly driven by ‘information and communication technology’ – 32.1% of apprenticeship starts in this sector subject area were by females, up from 15.8% in 2016/17. As seen in secondary education, there are higher attainment rates in women, with 87.4% achieving their engineering-related qualification in 2020/21, compared to 84.4% of men.
• There has been a similar long term trend of an increase in the percentage of apprenticeship starts by minority ethnic groups. For engineering-related apprenticeships, in 2021/22 12.5% of starts were by people from an ethnic minority, up from 7.5% in 2016/17. The overall number for other subjects is 14.4%, up from 11.2% in 2016/17. Similarly to gender, this increase in engineering is being driven by ICT – 24% of starts were from minority ethnic groups. Up from 17.2% in 2016/17.
• In 2020/21, 17.3% of apprenticeship starts in engineering-related areas came from students classed as most deprived (a decrease from 21.2% in 2016/17) This compares to 19.8% of apprentices across all subject areas in 2020/21 (decrease from 25.8% in 2016/17).

Whilst the latest apprenticeship data suggest a move in the right direction with a positive increase in apprenticeships starts, there is still a long way to go. Given the acute skills shortage and the pressing need for more engineers and technicians to support the UK’s ambitions, we need significant and sustained growth in apprenticeship starts and completions.

Apprenticeships are an important route into engineering careers and numbers entering onto them have been impacted by substantial economic change in recent years. If we want to see effective policy making for apprenticeships, we need to first unpack the pattern of decline over time in apprenticeship starts and understand the different factors at play. The characteristics of apprentices, in terms of gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic background, show there is less diversity among engineering than other subjects. This mirrors what we see in the engineering workforce and suggests that more work needs to be done to create more diversity amongst engineers for the future.

MD Comment

Apprenticeships are a vital gateway into STEM related careers for both employers and workers. They have traditionally provided the bedrock of a highly skilled workforce in the UK. It’s great to see that after decades of decline, apprenticeships are growing in number and providing young people with an excellent route into rewarding careers in the STEM sector. Overtime this will help to plug some of the gap UK PLC has in its STEM demographics. We should embrace and praise this increase as, for a variety of factors, it’s been decades of hard work to change perceptions of apprenticeships and re-engage industry, government and workers, leading to increased investment in this vital area of the skills jigsaw.