Entry criteria

The Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employers recognises England's very best employers of apprentices, from a wide range of industries and employment sectors.

There are two apprenticeship employer categories for the 2022 rankings:

• larger employers – for organisations with 250 employees or more, that employ a minimum of 25 apprentices in England
• SME employers – for organisations with 10-249 employees that employ a minimum of 3 apprentices in England

For each category, employers complete a short entry form, providing the following information about their organisation:

• the number of apprentices currently employed in England, at all levels of apprenticeships from level 2 to level 7
• how many apprentices started an apprenticeship within the last 12 months (including those recruited externally and existing employees or apprentices)
• the diversity of apprentices who began apprenticeships in the last 12 months (including apprentices' age, gender, ethnicity and learning difficulties & disabilities)
• the number of apprentices who successfully completed their apprenticeships over the last 12 months and then continued into a permanent job or progressed to another apprenticeship

This data will then be independently verified, assessed and weighted according to the size of the employer's workforce, to provide a score for each entrant.

The employers with the highest scores will be ranked in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and the Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employers for 2022.