Only 13% of STEM Foundation Apprenticeships undertaken by women
The Skills and Development Scotland report, “Foundation Apprenticeships: Early Progress and Learning Insights”, published today, has identified that eight local authorities do not offer STEM Foundation Apprenticeships and just 71 per cent of secondary schools offer Foundation Apprenticeships.
Foundation Apprenticeships provide work-based learning opportunities for secondary school pupils making their senior phase subject choices.
The report highlights that, out of the 2017 entrants, only 13 per cent of STEM Foundation Apprenticeships were female despite 53.7 per cent of all apprentices being women.
In addition, while the availability and enrolment of Foundation Apprenticeships has increased, it is still highly skewed across local authorities. Fife alone accounted for 19.2 per cent of Foundation Apprenticeship starts in 2017, and North Lanarkshire 16 per cent.
Lastly, 50.8 per cent of those who started Foundation Apprenticeship’s in 2016 have already dropped out, although most have continued with their studies.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has recently called for the Scottish Government to make Foundation Apprenticeships available in every school, something they have yet to support.
Commenting on the report, Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said:
“The Scottish Conservatives have recently called for the SNP to ensure that foundation apprenticeships are a part of every single Scottish secondary school’s offer by 2020.
“The report today shows that progress has been made towards this goal, but the geographical disparities will be affecting students' options.
“In addition, the lack of women undertaking STEM apprenticeships and the high drop-out rates must be addressed if students are to gain most benefit from these opportunities.
“There is considerable evidence that softening the divide between academic and work-based learning is key to a well performing modern economy.
“It is therefore extremely important for our economy and our students that all local authorities offer this real-world work experience.
“The Scottish Conservatives have long argued that our education system must be rebalanced in this way and the SNP must ensure that this progress is continued.”