Apprenticeship starts for November 2023 – the month after officials announced new functional skills funding rates would be fast-tracked – dipped 12 per cent on the previous year.
Figures published this morning by the Department for Education show there were 25,100 starts in November 2023 compared to 28,800 in November 2022.
There were 30,160 starts in November 2021 and even 26,630 in 2020 – the year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The slump in starts for November 2023 is likely to have been caused by the DfE’s announcement on October 31 that new funding rates for English and maths functional skills courses would be brought forward to begin from January 2024.
