Nearly one in ten established apprenticeship standards have failed to enrol a single apprentice, FE Week can reveal.
FE Week analysed starts data for the 668 currently “available for delivery” apprenticeship standards and found that 58, which have been approved for over a year, have yet to recruit (full table below).
Despite passing the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IfATE) various layers for approval – including tests for employer demand – leading employers have laid the blame on a mix of complex bureaucracy and risk-averse training providers.
Industry insiders also report that employers in some sectors are turning their backs on apprenticeships and reverting to more traditional courses because of the requirements placed on them by the current system.
