This publication provides information on apprentice and trainee activity for the 12 months ending 31 December 2005. An apprentice or trainee is a person undertaking vocational training through a contracted training arrangement. This annual publication brings together information published on a quarterly basis, and provides additional information on training and attrition rates, 'traditional apprenticeships', rates of training within the trades, school-based apprentices and trainees, and existing workers who undertake an apprenticeship or traineeship with their current employer.

In the 12 months to 31 December 2005: Nearly one in five 15 to 19-year-olds in employment were engaged as an apprentice or trainee. Commencements of traditional apprenticeships have outstripped the employment growth of the trades. Rates of training within the trades have risen steadily since 1995, while trade vacancies have fluctuated. Commencements in school-based apprenticeships and traineeships have more than quadrupled since the late 1990s. School-based and other apprentices and trainees attending school account for nearly one in five teenage apprentices (aged 19 years and under). Existing workers account for more than a quarter of all commencements.