The Education Policy Institute partnered with the DHL UK Foundation to hold a private roundtable on: ‘Youth apprenticeships – how can we improve take-up among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds?’
Apprenticeships are a key lever for the government to increase social mobility, through supporting employability and skills development for students outside of the academic routes, in both further and higher education. There is a growing body of evidence that apprenticeships have a positive impact on later earnings and labour market outcomes for apprentices, and offer significant net benefits to employers.
Yet despite reforms to apprenticeship provision, including the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017, in recent years there has been a marked decline (over 40%) in apprenticeship starts among young people, particularly those who are under the age of 19 and from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Further, with rising concern around the level of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET), how has the cohort of youth apprentices changed, and what impact, if any, will the government’s recent reforms – and the proposals set out in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper (published in October 2025) – have on take-up by this group?
In this context, EPI has undertaken new quantitative research to analyse youth apprenticeship starts at levels 1-5, between 2016/17 and 2024/25, to shed light on how the composition of youth apprentices has changed in recent years and how the most disadvantaged interact with apprenticeships compared to their more advantaged peers.
Alongside this quantitative research, this roundtable brought together employers, policymakers and third sector organisations to explore the results of this research and discuss how to improve apprenticeship take-up for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Together with the research, insights gained from the roundtable will be synthesised in a paper to inform sector understanding of this issue and policymaking in this area.
Partner with us
This roundtable was an invitation-only event as part of the Education Policy Institute’s partnership programme. To discuss running a private roundtable with EPI, please contact Tim Archer (tim.archer@epi.org.uk) or Adam Richards-Gray (adam.richards-gray@epi.org.uk) – or you can find out more about wider partnership opportunities here
