§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the level of participation of young school leavers in modern apprenticeships was in the last five years; and what percentage of the cohorts it represented. [134986]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisParticipation data are collected in line with the Public Service Agreement (PSA) for modern apprenticeships which 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 2004/5 expressed as a proportion of the most recent population estimate for that cohort from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Data disaggregated into age cohorts are not routinely available.
While Modern Apprenticeships have a longer history, fit for purpose data for the PSA target have been compiled only since 2001/2:
2001–2 2002–3 Modern Apprenticeship starts 137,000 2144,900 (percentage) 1(22.8 percent.) 1(23.9 per cent.) 1 Proportion calculated using ONS population estimates DME50 Table 4 2 Data for 2002/3 outturn is provisional; due to be finalised by the LSC in January 2004