The estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research reports training data for September – it’s the usual ordinary news

Apprentice and trainee starts were down 1.3 per cent to 156 000, on the previous September quarter. Trades dropped by 4.3 per cent, offsetting a small increase in non-trades. In what passes for a positive in training stats, commencements increased 1.7 per cent.  And last September’s stats will look great when second quarter (and hopefully only second quarter, 2020) numbers are published.