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Publication - Statistics

Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) from Modern Apprenticeships: 2020-21: Scotland

Published
26 July 2023
From
Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans, +2 more … Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Director of Lifelong Learning and Skills
Directorate
Lifelong Learning and Skills Directorate
Topic
Economy, Education
ISBN
9781835211632

The Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) from Modern Apprenticeships (MAs): 2020/21: Scotland release provides earnings information for those who completed MAs in Scotland, split by characteristics of individuals, such as level of qualification, sex, age, occupation, and SIMD quintile.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Occupational Grouping

Table 1 shows the median total earnings of MA completers five years after completion split by occupational grouping and sex. Overall, those who successfully completed their apprenticeship earned, on average, £22,000 five years after completion, with female completers earning £7,900 less than male completers (£18,300 for female and £26,200 for males).

Although this is a large earnings gap, it is an improvement on the earnings gap reported in the 2019 publication, with females earning £9,800 less than males.

When looking at the occupational groupings, male completers earned more than female completers across each published occupational grouping. The smallest gap for occupational groupings was in 'Transport and Logistics' where males earned on average £500 more than females. The largest gap was seen in 'Food and Drink', where males earned £7,000 more.

The overall difference in earnings between sexes can partially be explained by the number of males and females in certain occupational groupings. For example, 96% of MA completers in 'Engineering and Energy', the occupational grouping with the highest median earnings, were male. This compares to 'Personal Services', the occupational grouping with the lowest median earnings, where 93% of completers were female. In addition, as females are more likely to be in part-time employment than males, this difference in hours worked is also likely responsible for some of the overall earnings gap, as the LEO data does not account for hours worked. Further information on differences in full and part-time employment patterns by sex can be found in the results from the Annual population survey on the Scottish Government website.

Earnings can vary across both sex and occupational groupings for various other reasons. Individuals may take different career paths, have different employment opportunities, and may be more likely to move location for work. These factors can all greatly affect an individual's earnings and the subsequent median earnings, meaning that earnings can fluctuate from cohort to cohort. Further information on the data quality is available in the Methodology section of this release.

To prevent against disclosure issues, median earnings for 'Automotive' and 'Other Manufacture' have been supressed due to a low number of female completers in these occupational groupings, and 'Chemicals and Biotechnology related' has been supressed due to low numbers across both female and male completers.

Further information on which frameworks are contained within each occupational grouping is available in the Glossary section of this release.

Table 1: Median total earnings of MA completers* by occupational grouping and sex five years after completion, 2020/21 tax year
Occupational Grouping Median total earnings (£)
Female Completers Male Completers All Completers
Engineering and Energy 34,300 37,200 37,100
Construction and Related 24,200 30,200 30,000
Management 24,400 30,900 28,300
Automotive x x 27,500
Other Services 24,300 27,400 26,800
Chemicals and Biotechnology Related x x 26,200
Transport and Logistics 24,200 24,700 24,700
Other Manufacture x x 24,100
Financial Services 22,900 25,600 24,000
Food and Drink 16,500 23,500 20,800
Animal Care, Land and Water based 17,100 21,400 20,700
Administration and related 20,100 21,400 20,300
Retail and Customer Service 17,700 20,400 19,000
Creative and Cultural Skills 16,500 20,900 18,800
Sport, Health and Social Care 17,500 21,800 18,200
Hospitality 17,000 19,400 18,200
Personal Services 13,500 14,900 13,700
All occupational groupings 18,300 26,200 22,000

*2015/16 Modern Apprenticeship (MA) completers in Scotland
(1) Hours worked are not taken into account.
(2) 'x' denotes data has been supressed to prevent disclosure. All figures associated with cohorts of 10 or fewer individuals have been suppressed, and further suppression has been implemented to prevent disclosure by subtraction

Figure 1: Distributions of total earnings of 2015/16 MA completers* by occupational grouping and sex, five years after completion (lower quartile, median and upper quartile): 2020/21 tax year
A chart shows the median earnings along with upper and lower quartiles of modern apprenticeship completers by sex and occupational grouping. It shows that occupational groupings such as Engineering and Energy, Construction and Related and Management, have the highest earnings, whereas occupational groupings such as Hospitality, Sport, Health and Social Care, and Personal Services, have the lowest earnings.

*2015/16 Modern Apprenticeship (MA) completers in Scotland
(1) Hours worked are not taken into account.
(2) Occupational groupings with supressed figures are not included in Figure 1.

Contact

Email: FHEstatistics@gov.scot

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