Apprentices: Darlington

Mr. Milburn
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many apprenticeships there were in Darlington in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Bill Rammell
Figures for those participating in Apprenticeships (previously called Modern Apprenticeships) funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) can be derived from the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). This was collated for the first time in 2001/02 (as an Interim ILR) and consistent and comparable figures are currently only available for the three following years.

The following table shows the total number of Apprentices in Darlington (based on the home postcode of the learner) for each year from 2002/03 to 2004/05.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Darlington                         |Advanced apprenticeship|Apprenticeship|Total|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2002/03                            |330                    |650           |980  |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2003/04                            |390                    |750           |1,140|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2004/05                            |370                    |800           |1,170|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Note:Figures rounded to nearest 10.|                       |              |     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------