Provisional numbers from the Government’s Statistical First Release for 2014/15 has revealed a 20% leap in the numbers of Health and Social Care Apprenticeships to 84,300, up from 70,080 last year.

The statistics also show the numbers of Care Leadership and Management Higher Apprenticeships have more than doubled to 8,300, compared to 3,450 last year.  

Higher Apprenticeships in the social care sector now make up 43% of all Higher Apprenticeship across all sectors and, since the framework started three years ago, it has generated 14,720 starts out of 38,120.

The 20% year-on-year increase for health and social care and 140% in care leadership and management were greater than the year-on-year 12% change for all frameworks.

These statistics show health and social care is still the largest framework, almost twice as large as the second largest in terms of starts, and the gap to the second largest framework widened by almost 10,000 starts since last year.

Skills for Care CEO Sharon Allen said: “Apprenticeships where you learn while you earn have always been a good fit for adult social care and I’m delighted we are continuing to see significant growth in the number of highly motivated apprentices.

“This growth is due to the commitment of employers who run Apprenticeship programmes and 88% of them report that employing apprentices leads to a more motivated and satisfied workforce.

“I’m particularly pleased to see a doubling of Higher Apprenticeships as that means we are really supporting our leaders and managers to develop their skills and knowledge which can only result in improved services for people who need care and support.”