Moving On magazine Careers and Qualifications for School Leavers
What were the most popular apprenticeships in England last year, where were they and who did them?
The greatest number of people who started an apprenticeship in 2015 / 16 was in the North West of England, where there were 80,820 apprentice starts. This amounts to 16 per cent of the total starts for the year.
Obviously the North West is a pretty big area, so we thought it would be interesting to take a look at where within the North West region those apprentice starts were. These are shown in the table below.
Apprenticeships in the North West of England
| Knowsley | 1,570 |
| Rossendale and Darwen | 1,490 |
| Wigan | 1,460 |
| Heywood and Middleton | 1,430 |
| Barrow and Furness | 1,420 |
| Leigh | 1,420 |
| Makerfield | 1,420 |
| Birkenhead | 1,400 |
| Bootle | 1,390 |
| St Helens South and Whiston | 1,370 |
| Hyndburn | 1,340 |
| Worsley and Eccles South | 1,340 |
| St Helens North | 1,330 |
| Liverpool Walton | 1,310 |
| Blackpool South | 1,280 |
| Bolton South East | 1,280 |
| Oldham West and Royton | 1,280 |
| Wythenshawe and Sale East | 1,280 |
| Wallasey | 1,250 |
| Manchester Central | 1,240 |
| Crewe and Nantwich | 1,230 |
| Denton and Reddish | 1,230 |
| Blackburn | 1,220 |
| Rochdale | 1,220 |
| Blackley and Broughton | 1,210 |
| Burnley | 1,210 |
| Liverpool West Derby | 1,210 |
| Salford and Eccles | 1,210 |
| Chorley | 1,190 |
| Oldham East and Saddleworth | 1,190 |
| Warrington North | 1,180 |
| Preston | 1,170 |
| Garston and Halewood | 1,160 |
| Bury South | 1,110 |
| Stalybridge and Hyde | 1,110 |
| Halton | 1,100 |
| Warrington South | 1,100 |
| South Ribble | 1,090 |
| Stretford and Urmston | 1,090 |
| Ashton under Lyne | 1,080 |
| Bolton West | 1,080 |
| Morecambe and Lunesdale | 1,070 |
| Blackpool North and Cleveleys | 1,060 |
| Bolton North East | 1,050 |
| Ribble Valley | 1,050 |
| Stockport | 1,050 |
| Carlisle | 1,020 |
| Ellesmere Port and Neston | 1,010 |
| West Lancashire | 990 |
| Workington | 980 |
| Southport | 960 |
| Bury North | 950 |
| Copeland | 950 |
| Pendle | 950 |
| Fylde | 910 |
| Manchester Gorton | 910 |
| Weaver Vale | 900 |
| Liverpool Wavertree | 880 |
| Hazel Grove | 860 |
| Westmorland and Lonsdale | 840 |
| Congleton | 830 |
| Liverpool Riverside | 830 |
| Wirral South | 790 |
| Eddisbury | 780 |
| Wyre and Preston North | 780 |
| Lancaster and Fleetwood | 770 |
| Macclesfield | 760 |
| Sefton Central | 740 |
| Penrith and The Border | 720 |
| Wirral West | 690 |
| Altrincham and Sale West | 670 |
| City of Chester | 660 |
| Cheadle | 650 |
| Manchester Withington | 570 |
| Tatton | 530 |
The most abundant apprenticeships are still those in business administration and law, health, public services and care, retail and commercial enterprises, engineering and manufacturing technologies and construction and the built environment – as the figures for 2015 / 16 show below.
Who’s doing these apprenticeships?
Of those who started their apprenticeship in 2015/16:
- Nearly 26 per cent (131,240) were aged between 16 and 18
- 74.2 per cent (377,960) were aged 19+, and of these, 44 per cent were over 25 years’ old
- 52.8 per cent were female
- 47.2 per cent were male
- 9.9 per cent had a learning difficulty or disability
