Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has published Modern Apprenticeship statistics covering the period April 2024 to March 2025. The statistics show that 25,507 new start apprentices were supported in the last year.
The latest statistics also demonstrate that apprenticeships are supporting people to succeed in work, providing skills to meet key sector and economic demand and widening opportunities.
- Modern Apprenticeship achievement rate at the highest recorded, at nearly 80% (79.8%).
- Around two thirds of apprentices in training (63.9%) are working in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) related jobs and almost half of new starts (47.8%) are also working in these occupational areas.
- Over a third of Modern Apprenticeship starts in the last year were in Construction, Engineering, Energy and related occupations.
- 84% of starts were at a higher level of SCQF level 6 or above. This is in line with the Scottish Government’s continued policy focus on higher level apprenticeships.
- The number of people who started a Modern Apprenticeship and resided in the 10% most deprived areas continued to be higher than those who resided in the 10% least deprived areas. The achievement rate for those residing in the 10% most deprived areas also rose by over 5%.
- The share of both those starting an apprenticeship identifying from an ethnic minority community, and those identifying as care experienced was also the highest on record.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced funding to support around 25,500 more Modern Apprenticeship opportunities in the current financial year.
The full Modern Apprenticeship annual statistics are available on the Statistics area of the SDS website.
