New Enginuity report highlights apprenticeship attitudes and enrolments

More young people and their parents are showing interest in taking vocational routes towards their chosen career – but putting the provision in place is taking time.

Those are the findings of our new report, The future of skills investment: How apprenticeship starts and attitudes to vocational qualifications are shaping the skills landscape.

Download the 'starts vs attitudes' report

The report compares two different data sets to establish where the gaps lie within the typical progression towards an apprenticeship.

Firstly, the report compiles data on current training provision by tracking the number of ‘starts’ on apprenticeships and T Levels, as well as other Education & Training courses. As the figures have changed over the last four academic years, so we can begin to see how the incoming engineering and manufacturing workforce is taking shape.

In addition to this, the report contains analysis of the results of our Vocational Attitudes Survey. We asked young learners and their parents from all over the UK to answer our questions about vocational studies.

Our respondents expressed their views on such issues as educators giving equal weight to the full range of HE options – not just university. We also heard from parents who wanted more opportunities for their children to get a bit more hands-on with their experiences in education.

Results reveal differences in the skills landscape

Diving into the data to examine apprenticeship starts on an age-related and regional basis reveals some interesting stats. While the number of learners under 19 starting their apprenticeships has increased, we’ve spotted that more learners aged 19-24 are opting for E&T courses instead.

And there’s contrast between some regions when gauging enthusiasm for the engineering and manufacturing discipline. The North East has the highest proportion of learners in engineering, while West Midlands students’ support for hands-on experience declined over the course of the year between surveys.

In the East of England, the number of young learners who said they were ‘very interested’ to learn more about apprenticeships more than doubled in 2025, to 52%.

Our first impressions

“The report illustrates the decline in apprenticeship starts and the increase in enthusiasm for vocational routes from some regions,” said Lee Higgins, Sector Intelligence Manager at Enginuity. “It’s our view that educators, training providers, and policymakers must add more volume to the conversation around alternative education routes, to ensure aspiring engineers are shown the way and given the right support.

“We’re happy to see the perceptions of apprenticeships are finally shifting, and starting to be seen in an equally positive light as university degrees. But we must recognise the challenges if we are to ensure that the UK engineering and manufacturing sector has people with the right skills, at the right time.”

Download the report and see for yourself how the skills landscape is changing.

Download the 'starts vs attitudes' report