Apprenticeship: Success Rates in England 2012/13
Source: data.gov.uk (2014-09-15)

The Education & Training National Success Rate Tables (NSRT) and the Apprenticeships National Success Rate Tables (NSRT) for the academic year 2012/13 have been released. The tables can be accessed at GOV.UK SFA: national success rates tables 2012 to 2013 or here to meet the 3-star Open Data standard.  The tables are presented as a set of spreadsheets that can be downloaded by users for further analysis. 

The NSRT for Education & Training provision and Apprenticeships provision set out levels of success, retention and achievement in further education (FE) providers in England for the period 2010/11to 2012/13. The Skills Funding Agency publishes NSRT annually. This release of NSRT updates the 2009/10 to 2011/12 tables published in April 2013.  

For the first time this year the Apprenticeships tables include provider-level information about the Timely success rate.

The publication of NSRT supports providers in raising the standard of their delivery. The tables allow providers to assess their performance, and assists the planning of action programmes to improve the success, retention and achievement rates of their learners.

Apprenticeships national success rates tables  
for the 2012/2013 academic year  
 
Guidance notes 
  
 
Date of issue 
16 April 2014  
 
 
Publication intent 
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED 
Contents 
Section 1 – Introduction
 
 .......................................................................................................... 2
Purpose of this document
 
 ................................................................................................... 2
Purpose of the Apprenticeships national success rates tables
 
 ............................................ 2
Location of national success rates tables for 2012/2013
 
 ..................................................... 2
Changes to the Apprenticeships national success rates tables
 
 ........................................... 2
Section 2 – Apprenticeships national success rates tables worksheets
 
 .................................. 3
Contents of the tables
 
 ......................................................................................................... 3
Format of the Apprenticeships national success rates tables
 
 .............................................. 3
Overall report
 
 .................................................................................................................. 3
Sector subject area and framework report
 
 ...................................................................... 4
Institution report for overall measure and timely measure
 
 ............................................... 4
Excluded framework report for overall and timely measure
 
 ............................................. 4
Section 3 – Apprenticeships national success rates tables open data files
 
 ............................. 5
Format of Apprenticeships national success rates tables open data files
 
 ........................ 5
Overall report
 
 .................................................................................................................. 5
Sector subject and framework report
 
 .............................................................................. 6
Institution report
 
 .............................................................................................................. 6
Excluded frameworks report
 
 ........................................................................................... 6
Section 4 – Contents of national success rates tables
 
 ............................................................ 7
Report columns
 
 .................................................................................................................. 7
Institution type
 
 ................................................................................................................ 7
Age group
 
 ....................................................................................................................... 7
Apprenticeship level and type
 
 ......................................................................................... 7
Framework name and framework code
 
 ........................................................................... 7
Sector subject area tier 1 and tier 2
 
 ................................................................................ 8
Overall leavers and timely leavers
 
 .................................................................................. 8
Report measures
 
 ................................................................................................................ 8
Overall success rate
 
 ....................................................................................................... 8
Timely success rate
 
 ........................................................................................................ 8
Success rates percentiles
 
 ............................................................................................... 9
Section 5 – Exclusions from the national success rates tables
 
 ............................................. 10
Section 6 – Choosing information on the national success rates tables
 
 ................................ 11
Further information and help
 
 ................................................................................................. 12

 
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Section 1 – Introduction 
 
Purpose of this document 
 
1. This document provides information about the Apprenticeships national success rates 
tables for the 2012/2013 academic year.  
 
Purpose of the Apprenticeships national success rates tables   
 
2. The national success rates tables for Apprenticeships set out levels of success in 
Apprenticeships provision in England for the 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 
academic years. We publish national success rates tables every year.  
 
3. The information in the tables is consistent with the Apprenticeships qualification success 
rates reports for 2012/2013 published in January 2013. It expands upon the  
success-rate information made available in the January statistical first release (see 
www.gov.uk/government/publications/learner-participation-outcomes-and-level-of-
highest-qualification-held). 
 
4.  Apprenticeships national success rates tables help providers to raise the standard of 
their work. It allows providers to assess their performance, and helps them plan action 
programmes to improve their apprentices’ success rates. 
 
5. Throughout this guidance we refer to ‘national success rates tables’ rather than 
'benchmarking data'. National success rates tables allow for comparison, and are not a 
standard of best practice. 
 
 
Location of national success rates tables for 2012/2013 
 
6. The national success rates tables for 2012/2013 are on the data.gov.uk website at [enter 
URL for website]. 
 
 
Changes to the Apprenticeships national success rates tables 
 
7. The changes made to the Apprenticeships national success rates tables for 2011/2012 
are as follows. 
 
• 
The information from the 2012/2013 Apprenticeships qualification success rates 
reports has been added to the national success rates tables for 2012/2013. 
• 
The information from the 2009/2010 Apprenticeships qualification success rates 
reports has been removed from the national success rates tables for 2012/2013.  
• 
For the first time we are publishing qualification success rates reports for providers, to 
help them measure their success. 
• 
Only funded framework aims are included in the success rates tables.     

 
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Section 2 – Apprenticeships national success rates tables 
worksheets 
Contents of the tables   
 
8. Our aim in publishing the Apprenticeships national success rates tables is to provide a 
useful but manageable amount of information, drawing on existing statistics. 
 
9. The information for the Apprenticeships national success rates tables has been created 
from providers' Individualised Learner Record (ILR) returns, and they provide a range of 
national-level and provider-level statistics for success. The method of calculating success 
rates is available on the gov.uk website at 
www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-qualification-success-rates-2012-
to-2013. 
 
10. The Apprenticeships national success rates tables contain information on success rates 
for three academic years (2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013). The information for 
each academic year comes from the success rates dataset produced for that year, 
calculated using the method that applied to that year.  
 
11. The Apprenticeships national success rates tables are calculated using the ‘overall’ 
success rate and ‘timely’ success rate. The timely success rate is only shown on the 
provider-level report.     
 
 
Format of the Apprenticeships national success rates tables 
 
12. The Apprenticeships national success rates tables are published as four compressed 
files. Each compressed file holds a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contains a number 
of worksheets. The separate spreadsheets are: 
• 
Overall report; 
• 
Sector subject area and framework report; 
• 
Institution report for overall measure and timely measure; and 
• 
Excluded framework report for overall and timely measure. 
 
 
The contents of the spreadsheets are shown below. 
  
Overall report 
13. The overall report contains separate worksheets that show national success rates at  
headline level, which is an overview of all national success rates. This report also 
presents the success rates by: 
• 
sex;  
• 
learning difficulty or disability;  
• 
ethnic background; 
• 
apprentices’ local authority (based on the apprentices’ home postcodes); and  
• 
the local authority for where the learning is delivered (based on the postcode of the 
providers’ delivery locations).  
 

 
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14. The overall report also shows success rates percentiles on a separate worksheet. For a 
further explanation of success rates percentiles and how they are calculated, see 
paragraphs 47 to 52. The report shows percentiles at headline level and by:  
• 
ethnic background;  
• 
sex; and  
• 
learning difficulty or disability. 
 
15. Percentile sheets for apprentices’ and delivery locations’ local authorities have not been 
included in the overall report as the dataset contains many small groupings (cohorts), 
which would have a significant effect on the rates presented.  
 
Sector subject area and framework report 
16. The sector subject area and framework report contains worksheets that show the national 
success rates by: 
• 
sector subject area tier 1 and 2; and 
• 
framework.  
 
Institution report for overall measure and timely measure 
17. The institution report contains worksheets that show the success rates of each institution 
at headline level, which is a high-level overview of the overall success rates for each 
provider, by: 
• 
sex;  
• 
ethnic background;  
• 
learning difficulty or disability;  
• 
sector subject area; and  
• 
framework. 
 
18. The hybrid end date (which is the actual end date or the planned end date, whichever is 
later) is shown for the overall success rate and the planned end date is shown for the 
timely success rate.  
 
19. The sector subject area and framework reports could be split by year over separate 
worksheets if you go over the row limit of 65,536 in Excel 2003. 
 
20. A timely success rate report is published for the first time in 2012/2013. This shows timely 
national success rates for providers in the same worksheet format as the institutions’ 
overall national success rates reports.  
 
Excluded framework report for overall and timely measure 
21. Due to the rules described in section 5, the full coverage of frameworks delivered 
nationally, and at institution level, is not available in the national- and  
institution-level framework spreadsheets for the overall success rates. 
 
22. The excluded frameworks are published in the excluded framework worksheets to allow 
the full scope of frameworks delivery to be seen. The report indicates the reasons for the 
particular frameworks being excluded. It is split into four worksheets: 
• 
Excluded Apprenticeship frameworks at national level for 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 
2012/2013;  
• 
2010/2011 overall excluded frameworks for institutions; 
• 
2011/2012 overall excluded frameworks for institutions; and 

 
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• 
2012/2013 overall excluded frameworks for institutions. 
 
23. As the timely success rate is only being published for the institution report, excluded 
frameworks at institution level will be shown in the timely excluded frameworks report 
along with the reasons for the exclusions. The report is split into three worksheets: 
• 
2010/2011 timely excluded frameworks for institutions; 
• 
2011/2012 timely excluded frameworks for institutions; and 
• 
2012/2013 timely excluded frameworks for institutions. 
 
24. The excluded frameworks for institutions are displayed by year on separate worksheets 
as the volume of data goes over the Excel 2003 row limit of 65,536. 
 
Section 3 – Apprenticeships national success rates tables open 
data files 
    
Format of Apprenticeships national success rates tables open data files 
 
25. The Apprenticeships national success rates tables are also published in a non-proprietary 
format to make sure they meet the ‘three-star open data standard’. The  
comma-separated variable (CSV) file is our preferred non-proprietary format. For more 
information on open data, see the published white paper written by the Cabinet Office. 
This is on the website at www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-white-paper-
unleashing-the-potential. 
 
26. The Apprenticeships national success rates tables open data files are published as 27 
separate compressed files. The contents of each file, and where the information comes 
from, are listed below.  
 
Overall report 
27. There are 10 files containing data from the overall report worksheets explained in 
paragraphs 13 and 14. 
• 
NSRT201 – headline success rates 
• 
NSRT202 – headline percentiles 
• 
NSRT203 – success rates by gender 
• 
NSRT204 – percentiles by gender 
• 
NSRT205 – success rates by ethnic background 
• 
NSRT206 – percentiles by ethnic background 
• 
NSRT207 – success rates by learning difficulties or disabilities 
• 
NSRT208 – percentiles by learning difficulties or disabilities 
• 
NSRT209 – success rates by apprentices’ local authority 
• 
NSRT210 – success rates by delivery locations’ local authority. 

 
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Sector subject and framework report 
28. The sector subject area and framework report worksheets explained in paragraph 16 is 
published as two files listed below. 
• 
NSRT211 – sector subject area and framework success rate 
• 
NSRT212 – sector subject area success rates. (All the sector subject area 
worksheets are in this file.)   
 
Institution report 
29. There are 12 files containing the institution report worksheets explained in paragraphs 1 
to 20. 
• 
NSRT213 – overall headline success rates for the institution 
• 
NSRT214 – overall success rates for the institution by gender 
• 
NSRT215 – overall success rates for the institution by ethnic background 
• 
NSRT216 – overall success rates for the institution by learning difficulties or 
disabilities   
• 
NSRT217 – overall sector subject area success rates for the institution 
• 
NSRT218 – overall framework success rates for the institution 
• 
NSRT222 – timely headline success rates for the institution 
• 
NSRT223 – timely success rates for the institution by gender 
• 
NSRT224 – timely success rates for the institution by ethnic background 
• 
NSRT225 – timely success rates for the institution by learning difficulties or 
disabilities  
• 
NSRT226 – timely sector subject area success rates for the institution 
• 
NSRT227 – timely framework success rates for the institution 
 
Excluded frameworks report 
30. There are three files containing excluded frameworks report worksheets as explained in 
paragraphs 21 and 24.  
• 
NSRT219 – overall excluded national frameworks 
• 
NSRT220 – overall excluded institution frameworks 
• 
NSRT221 – timely excluded institution frameworks 
 
31. All the excluded institution framework worksheets are in a single file.  
 
 

 
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Section 4 – Contents of national success rates tables  
 
32. This section explains the columns in the Apprenticeships national success rates tables 
worksheets. 
 
Report columns 
Institution type 
33. Providers are classified into one of six institution types. The institution types reported on 
are as follows. 
 
• 
General further-education or tertiary college 
• 
Other publicly funded institution 
• 
Private-sector publicly funded institution 
• 
School 
• 
Sixth-form college 
• 
Specialist college  
 
34. The ‘specialist college’ category includes agriculture and horticulture colleges, and art, 
design and performing arts colleges.  
 
An ‘all institution type’ category is also available on some of the worksheets. 
 
Age group  
35. The age group of a cohort is based on an apprentice’s age on the start date of the 
framework aim. Apprentices of unknown age are included in the 25 and over age group. 
Apprentices under 16 are included in the 16 to 18 age group. All tables show information 
divided into the following age groups.  
• 
16 to 18  
• 
19 to 24  
• 
25 and over 
• 
All ages 
 
Apprenticeship level and type 
36. Apprenticeships are grouped according to their level and type. The Apprenticeship levels 
and types reported on are as follows. 
 
• 
Level 2 – intermediate Apprenticeship 
• 
Level 3 – advanced-level Apprenticeship 
• 
level 4 + – higher-level Apprenticeships (this includes level-4 and level-5 
Apprenticeships) 
• 
All levels and types 
  
Framework name and framework code  
37. The framework name and framework code of an Apprenticeship is in the learning aim 
reference application (LARA).  
 

 
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Sector subject area tier 1 and tier 2  
38. The sector subject area tier 1 and sector subject area tier 2 for an Apprenticeship 
framework are in the data lookup used in the October 2013 statistical first release and 
qualification success rate reports.  
 
Overall leavers and timely leavers 
39. The ‘overall leavers’ column shows the number of Apprenticeships that are planned to be 
completed, or have actually completed, within a given academic year. 
 
40. The ‘timely leavers’ column shows the number of Apprenticeships that are expected to be 
completed by the planned end date, or within 90 days of the planned end date, within a 
given academic year.  
 
41. A ‘leaver’ is defined as an apprentice who: 
• 
has not transferred to a different programme with the same provider; 
• 
has not transferred to another provider due to intervention by us or the Education 
Funding Agency; 
• 
is not on a planned break; and 
• 
has not withdrawn within the first six weeks of study. 
 
42. The number of leavers in a sub-cohort (a distinct group of apprentices within a cohort) 
may not add up to the total number of apprentices in the cohort because: 
• 
the number of leavers is rounded to the nearest 10 at all levels; and 
• 
small cohorts of leavers (fewer than five) are not included in the published tables.  
 
Report measures 
43. The overall and timely success rates are calculated in line with our Apprenticeship 
qualifications success rates business rules and methods. These are on the gov.uk 
website at www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-qualification-success-
rates-2012-to-2013.   
 
Overall success rate 
44. The overall success rate measures the percentage of Apprenticeship frameworks 
achieved against the overall number of Apprenticeship frameworks completed. The 
overall success rate is based on the hybrid end year. The hybrid end year is the actual 
learning end year or the planned learning end year, whichever is later. 
 
45. The definition of ‘leaver’ in paragraph 41 is also used to exclude Apprenticeship 
frameworks from the calculation of the overall success rate.  
 
Timely success rate 
46. For the first time, the Apprenticeships national success rates tables for 2012/2013 
provide a limited set of information for providers using the timely success rate. The timely 
success rate measures the percentage of Apprenticeship frameworks that were achieved 
by their planned end date, or within 90 days after their planned end date, against the 
number of frameworks that were expected to be completed. The exclusions for the overall 
success rate also apply to the timely success rate. 
 

 
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Success rates percentiles 
47. Success rates percentiles allow providers to compare their results against the range for 
their sector or particular types of provider. One way of interpreting percentiles is as 
follows.  
 
• 
Providers with a success rate on or above the 90th
• 
Providers with a success rate on or above the 75
 percentile are in the top 10% of 
providers.  
th
• 
Providers with a success rate on or above the 50
 percentile are in the top 25% of 
providers.  
th
• 
Providers with a success rate below or on the 25
 percentile are in the top 50% of 
providers.  
th
• 
Providers with a success rate below or on the 10
 percentile are in the bottom 25% of 
providers.  
th
 
 percentile are in the bottom 10% of 
providers.  
48. This is illustrated by the following table. A provider with a success rate of 45% would be 
in the bottom 10% of providers, whereas a provider with a success rate of 76% would be 
in the top 25% of providers. 
 
Percentile  
Example overall 
success rate  
10 
46.5% 
25 
59.4% 
50 
68.6% 
75 
74.5% 
90 
81.3% 
 
 
49. An alternative way of looking at this for provider types is that: 
 
• 
the top 10% of providers in a particular category have a success, retention or 
achievement rate on or above the 90th
• 
the top 25% of providers in a particular category have a success, retention or 
achievement rate on or above the 75
 percentile;  
th
• 
the top 50% of providers in a particular category have a success, retention or 
achievement rate on or above the 50
 percentile;  
th
• 
the bottom 25% of providers in a particular category have a success, retention or 
achievement rate below or on the 25
 percentile;  
th
• 
the bottom 10% of providers in a particular category have a success, retention or 
achievement rate below or on the 10
 percentile; and  
th
 
 percentile.  
50. Percentiles are calculated at provider level in order to display the differences between 
providers. This is different from the mean success rates, which are calculated as the 
mean rate for all the relevant leavers, averaging each leaver equally. 
 
51. When calculating percentiles, the success rate for each provider is used to create an 
average. This means that apprentices with smaller providers have a greater bearing on 
results than those from larger providers. The results for small groupings, such as 
Apprenticeships being studied in sixth-form colleges, will be affected by the average. 

 
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52. Both the mean success rate and the percentiles are valid and useful measures, 
depending on whether you are interested in the overall performance of the sector 
(consider mean success rates) or the differences between providers (consider 
percentiles). 
 
Section 5 – Exclusions from the national success rates tables  
53. The rules on excluding small cohorts, suppressing figures and rounding figures in the 
success rates worksheets are listed below.  
• 
Cohorts with fewer than five ‘overall leavers’ are not shown on any worksheets. 
• 
Cohorts with five or more ‘overall leavers’ but fewer than 30 have the number of 
leavers replaced with a dash (–).  
• 
The number of overall leavers is rounded to the nearest 10. This prevents the 
possibility of individual apprentices being identified.  
 
54. The rules on exclusions, suppressions and rounded figures on the percentiles worksheet 
are listed below. 
• 
If there are 20 or more providers, the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th
• 
If there are between 11 and 19 providers, only the 50
 percentiles are 
shown on the worksheet. 
th
• 
If there are 10 or fewer providers, no percentiles are shown on the worksheet.  
 percentile is shown on the 
worksheet. 
 
55. Where individual framework success rates are reported, if a framework is only delivered 
at a single institution, the framework is not included in the report. This affects the overall 
report (framework success rate worksheet) and the institution report (success rates for 
institutions by framework) worksheet for both the overall success rates and timely 
success rates. Any frameworks that are excluded are listed in the excluded frameworks 
report worksheets, together with the reasons why they are excluded.  
 
56. As rows on the framework spreadsheet are excluded, the total of the leavers for the 
individual institution types may be less than the number of leavers for the 'all institution 
type' row. The excluded institution types are shown in the excluded frameworks report 
spreadsheets, together with the reason for them being excluded. 

 
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Section 6 – Choosing information on the national success rates 
tables   
 
57. The success rate data is presented as a series of rows in Excel worksheets. Each row 
shows the success rate of a specific cohort of apprentices. Summary information is 
shown at many levels (for example, all ages, all Apprenticeship levels, all institution 
types). All the columns in the worksheets contain drop-down menus that allow you to 
choose the information you want. 
 
58. The screenshot below shows an example of how the information will appear in the 
headline success rate worksheet of the overall report.  
 
 
 
 
59. The drop-down menus are used to choose the level of information. The screenshot below 
shows the effect of using the drop-down menus to choose success rates broken down by 
age for all Apprenticeship levels for 2012/2013. 
 
 
 
 

 
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Further information and help   
 
60. If you would like any more information about the Apprenticeship national success rates 
tables, phone our service desk on xx-xxxx-xxxx or email xxx@xxx.xx.   
 
61. We produce Apprenticeships national success rates tables in line with our Apprenticeship 
qualifications success rates business rules. The business rules and technical 
specifications are on the success rate pages of the gov.uk website at 
www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-qualification-success-rates-2012-
to-2013.  
 
62. If you need more help, give our service desk a detailed explanation of your query. 
 
 
Published by: 
Skills Funding Agency 
Version: 
1.0 
Date: 
16 April 2014