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

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