Factors affecting completion of apprenticeship training in England

Abstract

This paper examines factors that are associated with the probability of completion of apprenticeship programmes by individual learners in England. Data are from the 2008/2009 academic year Individualised Learner Record – the administrative database containing information on all learners in the Further Education system in England. The analysis considers various factors including demographic characteristics of apprentices, aspects of their programme and an indicator of the local labour market context in which they participate in the apprenticeship. The study considers both Apprenticeships (Level 2) and Advanced Apprenticeships (Level 3) and finds a variety of factors that have a significant effect on the likelihood of completion. Gender-related differences are found only within particular frameworks (akin to the subject or sector). Local unemployment rates are found to have a significant effect on the probability of completion with the direction of this relationship differing between the two levels. The findings highlight that the contemporaneous goals of increasing participation in apprenticeship and improving completion rates cannot be easily achieved through the same actions. Despite this, the importance of completion of an apprenticeship cannot be denied for a variety of reasons including the penalties individuals may suffer in the labour market due to non-completion.

Keywords:

• apprenticeship
• completion rates
• education
• training
• England

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the former Learning and Skills Council who sponsored the research project on which this paper is based. Thanks also to other colleagues at the Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, who were involved in the original study.

Notes

1. The distinction made by Ryan (2001) between Apprenticeships with an upper case ‘A’, which refer to the Government training scheme, and apprenticeships with a lower case ‘a’, which refer to the form of training traditionally associated with this form of training in sectors such as engineering and construction, is used in this paper with reference to Apprenticeship (Level 2) and Advanced Apprenticeship.

2. Note CE/IER report looking at completers vs. non-completers and how this is not necessarily a good comparison – nevertheless, the benefits of apprentices (even compared to other forms of learning and other counterfactuals) are fairly conclusive that there are gains for individuals (but raises a bit of a question whether it is due to completion or just a partial completion or something else?).

3. Completion rates are defined in England as follows: ‘The cohort used to calculate Apprenticeship framework completion rates includes all frameworks (i.e. the combined grouping of qualifications and not each individual qualification aim) whose planned end date is during the reporting year which were achieved on or before that planned end date, plus any programmes that went beyond the planned end date and were either achieved or withdrawn from (i.e. are not still in progress) in the reporting year. Where a learner transfers to another framework, they are treated as a start on the new qualification and not the old one. Learners who leave their programmes within six weeks of starting are excluded from the calculations. Learners who leave programmes to take up alternative employment are classified as not having achieved.’ (The Data Service/ONS 2008). This definition has been used in measuring completion rates in England in this report.

4. Until 2010, the LSC was the body responsible for funding and organising the delivery of further education and skills in England. Its functions were taken over by, amongst other organisations, the Skills Funding Agency.

5. Other labour market indicators were considered for inclusion in the model but were not selected for the final model specification. These variables included unemployment rates at census area level and the hourly wage of skilled workers relative to that of unskilled workers by region (obtained through ASHE data (2008)).