How COVID-19 has impacted apprenticeships for young ethnic minorities

Key points:

• Despite some growth in the number of apprenticeship starts by ethnic minority learners, their representation relative to the secondary school population remains low.
• Much of the growth in apprenticeship starts in the past decade has been driven by older apprentices.
• Ethnic minority apprentices tend to favour certain sectors: health, public services and care; business, administration and law.
• White apprentices are more likely to complete the training than their counterparts from ethnic minorities in all sectors except for hospitality.
• Following the COVID-19 lockdown, vacancies for apprenticeships fell dramatically, including in those sectors favoured by ethnic minority learners.
• The government’s Kickstart programme runs the risk of undermining the push for greater ethnic minority representation in apprenticeships.

Recommendations from the briefing:

• All stakeholders should undertake to actively monitor and combat the adverse equality implications of COVID-19.
• The Department for Education should renew its commitment to reaching the target of raising the participation of ethnic minority learners in apprenticeships by 20 per cent.
• The government should ensure new employment measures have the same targets as apprenticeship schemes for ethnic minority representation.
• The government should ensure that the commitment to greater representation in apprenticeship programme decision-making extends to employer bodies.

The briefing is written by Ken Clark and Steve Nolan.

Read the full briefing on the Runnymede Trust website.