Thousands of people who have taken up apprenticeships to help them develop new skills have dropped out due to the poor quality of their schemes, new research reveals.
In 2012, the coalition Government commissioned the ‘Richard Review’ to ensure that apprenticeships in England were ‘consistently delivering high quality training’.
However, the most recent official data suggests that nearly half of apprentices fail to complete their courses.
A new report by the education and skills think tank EDSK has investigated why so many apprentices drop out.
It found that the majority of people leaving cited ‘poor quality’, including lack of training and bad management, as a reason for leaving. Nearly 348,000 people started apprenticeships in the 2021-22 academic year, which is an increase on the previous period.
However, EDSK estimates that more than 100,000 of those new apprentices will leave or will already have left, due to the poor quality of their schemes.