Interested to see @educationgovuk figures on apprenticeships this morning. It's no surprise that apprenticeship starts have fallen markedly (roughly 50%) since lockdown began, compared to the same period in 2019. 1/7

It's also not particularly surprising that starts for young people have fallen even further, given that they're more likely to work in sectors affected by the shutdown. (We talk about that in more detail here: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/trading-up-or-trading-off/ ) 2/7

With policy makers asking whether apprenticeships should be 'guaranteed' for young people, or form one part of larger package that guarantees youth education, training and work options (the latter much better idea), we should be interested in the number of app. opportunities. 3/7

And again, it's no surprise that apprenticeship vacancies have collapsed since lockdown began. 4/7

But as ever with apprenticeships, there's more than initially meets the eye...though not always in good way. Comparing the number of vacancies in Apr/May 2019 against Apr/May 2020 shows that low and mid-level programmes have been far(!) harder hit than higher education ones. 5/7

It's of course worth emphasising that all of these figures should come with a v. big health warning as there have no doubt been delays in reporting and processing starts, vacancies and adverts. So we should of course revisit once next round of figures are out. 6/7

The point is that the apprenticeship system has (even before the levy) struggled to provide young people with a route to a good career. Before the levy, it was dominated by older apprentices on lower-level programmes and after, older apprentices on higher-level programmes. 7/7

What these figures show is that without intervention, the current crisis could accelerate that trend, leaving young people looking for a route to mid and higher-level skills (still) in the dust.