§ Mr. BlizzardTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his targets are for the number 503W of modern apprenticeships to be provided; and how many have been achieved for each year since they were introduced. [133250]
§ Mr. Ivan Lewis[holding answer 20 October 2003]: The Public Service Agreement (PSA) for Modern Apprenticeships states that:
By 2004, at least 28 per cent. of young people to start a Modern Apprenticeship by age 22".The technical note for this target clarifies this to mean first-time entrants to Foundation or Advanced Modern Apprenticeships by those aged 16 to 21. The outturn will be starts, defined above, during the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) academic year 2004/05, expressed as a proportion of the most recent population estimate for that cohort from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
While Modern Apprenticeships have a longer history, fit for purpose data for the PSA target have been compiled only since 2001/02:
Modern Apprenticeship starts Number Percentage 2001/02 137,000 122.8 2002/03 2144,900 123.9 1 Proportion calculated using ONS population estimates DME50 Table 4. 2 Data for 2002/03 outturn are provisional; due to be finalised by the LSC in January 2004.