Entry Criteria
The Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employers are data-driven rankings of England's very best employers of apprentices in different industries and employment sectors.
There were two apprenticeship employer categories for the 2023 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 completed a short entry form and are assessed on:
- the number of apprentices who started an apprenticeship in the last 12 months (including those recruited externally and existing employees or apprentices), at all levels of apprenticeships from level 2 to level 7
- the diversity of these apprentices who began new apprenticeships in the past year (including apprentices' gender, ethnicity, age and learning difficulties & disabilities)
- how many apprentices successfully achieved an apprenticeship in the last 12 months, by completing all the requirements of their apprenticeship and the passing the End-Point Assessment (EPA); and the number of apprentices who withdrew from an apprenticeship during the past year
This data was then 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 are ranked in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employers for 2023.
Entries will re-open early next year for the 2024 rankings.