Benchmark job

A benchmark job is a sample of the jobs in a specific profession. It shows how much money employees earn and what type of skills are required for those roles.

The government uses benchmark jobs to decide how much funding they can give to certain professions through their apprenticeship schemes. For example, if there was a shortage of plumbers, we would expect the wages to be higher than other tradespeople because demand outstrips supply. This could also mean that more people start learning plumbing as an apprentice because they know they will get paid more than doing something else.