We've ranked the best cities and towns in England to do an apprenticeship - based on how easy it is to find an apprenticeship, the cost of living and the likelihood of finding a job at the end of your programme.
North West
Thanks to its affordable cost of living and a high number of apprentices, Wigan takes the top spot on our index.
West Midlands
Over the last four years there’s been a 10% increase in the number of businesses setting up shop in Stoke-on-Trent, creating more jobs and more opportunities in the area.
West Midlands
Newcastle-under-Lyme’s high population of apprentices combined with its affordable living costs makes it one of the best places in the country to do an apprenticeship.
South West
Plymouth is the best place in the south to do an apprenticeship, and has the highest population of apprentices in our ranking.
South East
There’s been an 8% increase in the number of apprentices in Crawley in the last four years.
of apprentices remain at their company post apprenticeship
of our alumni have been promoted within 18 months of completing their apprenticeship
of apprentices know how their apprenticeship will contribute to their future career goals
Jessica's Story: So far my apprenticeship has been amazing. I have learned so much, both from my job and from Multiverse’s events. I’ve been able to do things I didn't think I’d ever be able to do.
4 min read
Meet apprentices Tee, Charlie, Diana, Andrew, Ismail and Cartomu.
1 min read
Islam's story: I was on LinkedIn when I first came across someone doing an apprenticeship. It was the first time I’d realised that apprenticeships were more than what I’d imagined - and they’re a route into exciting firms doing the sorts of jobs I had dreamed of doing. One area in particular stood out to me - Business Administration.
3 min read
Methodology
To calculate a town or city’s score in the ‘Top 20 Places to Be an Apprentice’ Index, each local authority is ranked against five variables; apprenticeship density, apprenticeship starts, employment rate, business growth, and average rental prices for a 1 bedroom property.
These metrics reflect the availability of appreticeships (how easy it is to find one), and how easy it will be to secure long-term employment in the same place. We use rent prices as a benchmark to assess the cost of living in a town or city.
The data used for these variables reflects the most recently available data from the ONS and Government.
The best rankings for a town or city would go to those which have low average rents, high apprenticeship density (how many apprentice starts there are per number of businesses in the area), high growth in apprenticeship starts, a high employment rate, and high business growth.
To create an overall table, each town or city’s individual ranking for each variable is used to give it an individual variable score (e.g 1st = 1 or 31st = 31). These are then accumulated across all five variables to give a final score (e.g. 1 + 31 = 32). Towns and cities are then sorted by their total score, the lower the total score the better, and ranked in positions i.e 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. Those with the same total score are given the same final ranking.
