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.
Entries for the 2024 rankings are now closed.
There are two apprenticeship employer categories for the 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:
- how many apprentices started an apprenticeship within 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 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
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 are ranked in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employers.