Apprentices and trainees 2022: March quarter

This publication provides a snapshot of apprenticeships and traineeships across Australia. It presents statistics on commencements, completions, cancellations and withdrawals and those currently in training. Unless stated otherwise, data are derived from the latest National Apprentice and Trainee Collection (no. 112, June 2022 estimates), which is compiled under the Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) for Apprentice and Trainee Collection Specifications, Release 7.0, October 2015.

Due to the delay in time between an event (commencement, completion, etc.) occurring and the reporting of that event to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), NCVER estimates the most recent figures. The estimation method involves weighting recently processed numbers based on average reporting lags. As estimates are revised for up to seven quarters, figures for the last two years may differ from those published in earlier or in subsequent reports. The final counts are those submitted by jurisdictions. Further details on the methodology can be found in the 'Estimation of apprentice and trainee statistics' technical paper [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 100.15].

Notes: (1)The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic in Australia has created uncertain times for individuals, business and governments, which have affected apprentice and trainee numbers. Care should be taken when comparing 2020 to 2022 data with data from previous years; and (2) In-training figures represent the number of apprenticeship and traineeship training contracts where the apprentice or trainee is actively training under the terms of their contract, and who have not completed, cancelled or withdrawn from their training, or had their training contract expired without meeting all of the prescribed requirements of their program. The figure reflects the number of active contracts at a given point in time (at the end of the quarter), and therefore in-training figures cannot be cumulated over time. For this reason, quarterly comparisons are equivalent to 12-months ending comparisons, as they both represent the changes as at 31 March from one year to the next.

In Australia, there were 387,830 apprentices and trainees in-training as at 31 March 2022, an increase of 17.1 per cent from 31 March 2021. In the March quarter 2022, compared with the March quarter 2021: commencements increased by 23.6 per cent, to 85,470; completions increased by 11.5 per cent, to 22,310; and cancellations and withdrawals increased by 28.2 per cent, to 29,870. In the 12 months ending 31 March 2022, compared with the 12 months ending 31 March 2021: commencements increased by 23.7 per cent, to 234,700; completions increased by 15.6 per cent, to 85,470; and cancellations and withdrawals increased by 48.2 per cent, to 110,925.

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