2.3% public sector apprenticeships target exceeded

The Department of Education has exceeded the target that it set itself for the recruitment of apprentices in 2017. The apprenticeship levy was first launched in April last year, with public sector bodies being obliged to make certain that a minimum of 2.3% of the workforce is made up of apprentices each year.

After just over a year, the Department has succeeded in meeting and even exceeding that target, and is now giving until the end of September for all of the other eligible public bodies to release their own figures.

On Tuesday, minister Lord Agnew said that 2.9% of the workforce in the Department was apprentices as of the end of March this year.

FE Week was told by a spokesperson for the Department that last year, there were 178 apprentices out of the total 6,068 staff members who make up the both the Department and the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Agnew added that there are not yet figures on the number of public sector apprenticeships available because they are only required to publish their figures and send them to the Department on an annual basis, with the first reports due on 30 September this year.

The target for public sector apprenticeships requires public bodies with a minimum of 250 employees to have no lower than 2.3% of apprentices in their workforce, covering the period from 1 April to 31 March every year.