Apprenticeship Starts by Sector

The question

How to approach this bar chart question

A bar chart compares categories or shows change between points in time. Write an overview of the biggest differences, then compare the highest, lowest and any surprise.

1. Name the chart, the units and the time or places it covers in one sentence (paraphrase the question).
2. Write an overview: the largest and smallest categories, or the main change over time.
3. Group the bars into two body paragraphs by similarity, not one by one.
4. Quote the key numbers only, with units, and compare them.

How to plan this answer

Structure

1. Introduction: paraphrase the bar chart, which shows the number of apprenticeship starts in six sectors in Country B in 2015 and 2025, in thousands.
2. Overview: Health and care grows the most and becomes the largest sector, Engineering falls from the top spot, and total starts rise from about 167 thousand to 198 thousand.
3. Body paragraph 1: the sectors that grew, Health and care (31 to 58 thousand), Information technology (12 to 27 thousand) and Construction (35 to 40 thousand).
4. Body paragraph 2: the sectors that fell, Engineering (42 to 36 thousand), Retail (28 to 24 thousand) and Hospitality (19 to 13 thousand), and the overall totals.

Key features to spot

• Health and care rises by 27 thousand, from 31 to 58 thousand, nearly doubling, and overtakes Engineering to become the largest sector.
• Information technology more than doubles, from 12 to 27 thousand, the second-largest proportional rise.
• Engineering falls from 42 to 36 thousand, and drops from first place to third, behind Health and care and Construction (40 thousand).
• Hospitality falls from 19 to 13 thousand and is the smallest sector in 2025.
• Total starts rise from 167 thousand in 2015 to 198 thousand in 2025, an increase of about 19%.

Useful vocabulary

• apprenticeship starts: Apprenticeship starts in Health and care nearly doubled over the decade.
• nearly doubled: Starts in Health and care nearly doubled, from 31 to 58 thousand.
• more than doubled: Starts in Information technology more than doubled.
• overtook: Health and care overtook Engineering to become the largest sector.
• the largest sector: Health and care is the largest sector by 2025.
• fell from ... to ...: Starts in Engineering fell from 42 to 36 thousand.
• rose by ... thousand: Starts in Construction rose by 5 thousand.
• the smallest intake: Hospitality had the smallest intake in 2025.

Common mistakes

• Saying Engineering remained the largest sector, when Health and care took first place in 2025.
• Writing that Health and care rose by 58 thousand, when the rise is 27 thousand (from 31 to 58).
• Ranking Hospitality above Retail in 2025, when Retail (24 thousand) is larger than Hospitality (13 thousand).
• Listing the six sectors in the order of the chart rather than by size, which makes the comparisons hard to follow.
• Speculating about why demand changed in each sector, which the prompt rules out.

Examiner tip: Order the six sectors by size and then by change. Health and care's move to the top is the main feature of the chart, so give it a clear, early mention.