The National Centre for Vocational Education Research has released its latest data about apprenticeship and traineeship completion rates. It shows that overall completion rates decreased in 2023. The report shows the completion rate for all individuals who commenced an apprenticeship or traineeship in 2019 was 54.8%, down 1.0 percentage points compared with those who commenced in 2018.
For trade occupations, the completion rate rose slightly (by 0.7%) to 54.1%, while for non-trade occupations the rate dropped by 2.5% to 55.7%. The numbers vary significantly between occupations. For trades, the food trades, which includes bakers, butchers and cooks, have always had the poorest completion rates, and electrotechnology and telecommunications, which includes electricians, has the highest.
For non-trade occupations, the differences aren’t as marked, although for sales workers and community and personal service workers, which includes early childcare and aged care workers, completion rates dropped by 5%. Professionals dropped by 10%, but numbers in this category are low.
Completions is one of the issues being considered as part of the Commonwealth Government’s Strategic Review of the Apprenticeship Incentive Scheme.
