Rise in number of apprentices in workplace

The region saw a 38 per cent year-on-year increase in vacancies posted on the National Apprenticeship Service’s website between August and October 2013, 3,780 compared to 2,730 in the same period the previous year. But with online applications via the website having risen by 59 per cent year-on-year to 40,710 in the same period, the Government is urging employers in Yorkshire and the Humber to create more apprenticeship positions to meet the demand.

Yorkshire and the Humber, together with the South East, witnessed the biggest increase in apprenticeship vacancies.

In the Yorkshire and Humber region, the greatest numbers of both applications and vacancies were in the business, administration and law sector with 14,530 applications made during the period for some 1,710 apprenticeships.

In Leeds, there was a 31 per cent year-on-year increase in vacancies posted on the National Apprenticeship Service’s website between August and October 2013, 550 in total, compared to 420 in the same period the year before.

Online applications went up by 54 per cent to 6,350 in the same period. The index also reveals that apprenticeships are attracting increasing numbers of applications from female candidates. Online applications from women have increased by more than half since last year in England, with 216,100 applications made by women in the three-month period, a 55 per cent increase.

This has also served to narrow the male gender bias, with 47 per cent of all applications for apprenticeships advertised on the National Apprenticeship Service’s website made by women this year compared to 43 per cent last year.

Matthew Hancock MP, Skills and Enterprise Minister, said: “These figures show that apprenticeships are growing in appeal to young people, and yet more young women are seeking out this unique opportunity to earn while they learn.”