Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decrease in apprenticeship completion; and what steps they will take to help equip younger apprentices with the transferable skills to adapt to changing job roles and technological innovation.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In order to drive up the quality of apprenticeships, the department has raised the bar on the duration of apprenticeships, the time given to learn off the job, and the quality of assessment. All apprenticeships are now driven by employers and achievement rates are increasing year on year.
There were 162,320 achievements in the 2022/23 academic year, which is an increase of 25,100 on 2021/22. This is encouraging; the department wants to further improve the quality of apprenticeships to ensure that as many apprentices as possible stay on their programme, achieve, and have a high-quality experience.
To support this ambition and drive-up quality, the department is investing £7.5 million in a workforce development programme for teachers and trainers of apprentices, increasing the apprenticeship funding rate for English and mathematics by 54%, and has asked Ofsted to inspect all apprenticeship providers by 2025.
The department is also making sure that apprenticeships continue to meet apprentices’ and employers’ needs in a fast-changing world. Last year, the department reviewed over 125 apprenticeships to reflect technological advancements and employer needs, and approved funding uplifts for 80 apprenticeships, with the average increase being 35%.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have sufficient data on children over the age of 16 who are not in education or vocational training to enable targeted help to be made available to these so-called 'ghost children'.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since 2010, the department has put in place a range of policies that have significantly reduced the quantity of young people designated as not in education, employment and training (NEET).
Whilst the government provides the framework to increase participation and reduce the proportion of young people who are NEET, responsibility and accountability for delivery lies with local authorities, who have a statutory duty to identify and support all young people who are NEET.
Statutory guidance directs local authorities to collect information on all young people in their area, including whether they are NEET or have characteristics that put them at risk of becoming NEET, so that local authorities and their delivery service partners can effectively target and support those young people.
The department monitors NEET data and liaises with local authorities regarding their statutory duties to identify and support 16 and 17-year-olds. The department also publishes annual data from local authorities, including NEET comparative scorecards, that supports local authorities and their delivery services to monitor their own performance and benchmark it against that of others to promote improvements. The NEET comparative scorecards include information on local populations according to the Office of the National Statistics that can help local authorities evaluate whether young people are missing from their data and take further action. The NEET comparative scorecards are published at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/young-people-neet-comparative-data-scorecard.
The department also works with local authorities to support the better use of data tools to identify those at an increased risk of becoming NEET, based on characteristics such as having a learning difficulty or disability, or a record of poor school attendance, so they can be monitored and targeted with extra support to help them stay in education.
NEET young people are separate to children missing education, the latter being defined as compulsory school-aged children who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school. From autumn 2022, local authorities have been asked to voluntarily provide aggregate information to the department on children missing education. This information is being analysed, and we expect this data will help to significantly improve our understanding of the national level picture.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to enhance information on career opportunities for students considering project management degree apprenticeships, particularly given the needs arising from the net zero and levelling up agendas.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Employers have designed over 155 high-quality degree level apprenticeship standards, including in project management, to support the development of the skilled workforces they need. In the 2021/22 academic year, there were 590 starts on the Level 6 Project Manager degree apprenticeship, up from 140 starts in the 2018/19 academic year.
The department would like to see even more people benefit from the high-quality career opportunities that degree level apprenticeships provide and are taking steps to ensure that young people can access these opportunities more easily.
In addition to the department's Find an Apprenticeship service, which allows people to search and apply for apprenticeship vacancies, the department continues to work with employers to produce the biannual higher and degree level apprenticeship vacancy listing. The latest listing, published during National Apprenticeship Week, features over 300 vacancies across the country that are available to apply to in 2023. These vacancies are also being promoted to students through our Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme.
The ASK programme provides free resources in schools and colleges to ensure that students, parents, and teachers are aware of apprenticeships – including degree apprenticeships. The programme is supported by £3.2 million of funding per year and has worked with 5,000 schools, reaching over 1.7 million students and over 230,000 parents.
UCAS is also expanding its apprenticeships service, so that young people can see relevant apprenticeship vacancies on the UCAS hub, including degree apprenticeships. They are also working with the department to ensure that from 2024, students will be able to apply for apprenticeships alongside an undergraduate degree application. This means thousands more young people will benefit from a wider choice of high-quality options, and employers can benefit from better access to talent on UCAS.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between the fall in the Apprenticeship Levy fee and the fall in the number of new apprenticeship starts; and whether they plan to reintroduce the £3,000 amount for all age groups.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s apprentice incentive payments of up to £3,000 have helped employers of all sizes to build back from the COVID-19 pandemic more successfully, supporting over 195,000 new apprentices into work between 1 August 2020 and 31 January 2022, 77% of which were apprentices under the age of 25.
The apprenticeship incentive payments were introduced as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs in 2020, in recognition of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on business, and to support employers to recruit the right people and develop the skills they needed to recover and grow. The department has no current plan to reintroduce the incentive scheme, but continues to support employers with the cost of apprenticeship training.
The government is increasing funding for apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support more employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities. As part of this, the department continues to provide £1,000 payments to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19 or from the ages of 19 to 24, who have an education, health and care plan, or have been in care.
The government contributes 95% of the cost of apprenticeship training for small-to-medium sized enterprises who do not pay the apprenticeship levy for up to 10 apprentices a year, and funds 100% of the training costs for the smallest employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18.
The department continues to monitor the level of apprenticeship starts and completions and publishes this information at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships. Between August and November 2022, there have been 155,900 apprenticeship starts.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, given that over £600 million of unused Apprenticeship Levy funding has been returned to the Treasury, when they intend to review that levy.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy is an important part of the government’s reforms to create a high-quality, employer-led apprenticeships system, and it supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. The government does not currently have any plans to review the apprenticeship levy.
Whilst the department has seen some underspends in the apprenticeships budget in previous years, this will not always be the case. In the 2021/22 financial year the total spend on apprenticeships was £2,455 million against the budget of £2,466 million, meaning that 99.6% of the apprenticeships budget was spent. It is therefore important that the apprenticeships budget remains ring-fenced to support the demand from employers for high-quality apprenticeships training.
The government is increasing apprenticeship funding to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year and is continuing to improve the apprenticeships system to support more employers and apprentices to benefit from apprenticeships. The department has created flexible training models, like flexi-job and accelerated apprenticeships, to make apprenticeships accessible for all sectors. We have also improved the transfer system to make it easier for levy paying employers to find other employers who wish to take on new apprentices with transferred funds. Additionally, we are working with training providers to simplify the apprenticeship system through our “You said, we did” programme.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide students under the age of 17 with a wider choice of subjects to study, in order to bring an end to the division in employability between academic and technical education.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Up to the age of 16, young people are introduced to a broad and balanced curriculum, which provides music, sport, citizenship, and cultural opportunities.
The department reformed GCSEs from 2013 to ensure that they rigorously assess the knowledge pupils have acquired and are in line with expected standards in countries with high performing education systems.
The computing curriculum supports pupils to become active creators of digital technology. Programming, algorithms, and the use of information technology are taught to pupils at key stage 3 to provide the foundation for pupils to acquire further knowledge about artificial intelligence, data science, cyber security, and other fields. In November 2018, the department launched the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), backed by £84 million of government funding. The NCCE provides high-quality, continuing professional development and resources to teachers of all key stages and engages with schools and colleges across England to improve their computing provision.
To ensure a strong pipeline of qualified students into higher education and careers in STEM areas, the department has committed substantial spending on subjects, including science with the aim of increasing take up. This includes funding of programmes such as the Stimulating Physics Network and the Isaac Physics programme which both aim to increase rates of progression to physics A level, a subject which could lead a student into a technical career.
Post-16 students are able to specialise, with a range of high quality academic and technical qualifications options. This includes a rigorous suite of A levels, T Levels, and apprenticeships. The content of T Levels is designed in collaboration with employers. Each course includes a 45-day industry placement, so students are equipped with industry related skills. The department is also streamlining and improving the quality of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the £3 billion national skills fund announced in the 2019 Conservative manifesto is available to small businesses for apprenticeships.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Over the course of this Parliament, the government will provide an extra £2.5 billion (£3 billion including indicative Barnett consequentials) for a new National Skills Fund. The Fund is part of a dramatic rebooting of our skills system and will help workers to have the skills they need to flourish and fulfil their potential.
To decide how best to develop the National Skills Fund, the government is planning to consult widely on the National Skills Fund, to ensure the fund provides the best return on investment.
The insights gained will help to build an understanding of how to target the fund and what types of training it should cover, to ensure it best supports people to learn new skills and prepare for future changes to the economy.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of schools rated as good or outstanding which do not provide music education of this standard; and what steps they intend to take to improve the teaching of music in such schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested regarding information on individual schools and whether they provide music education is not held centrally.
The government is clear that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high quality music education, at least up to the age of 14. That is why the subject is compulsory in the national curriculum and why this government is providing funding of over £300 million for music education hubs between 2016 and 2020.
In order to ensure all pupils are able to enjoy a high quality music education, we are developing and publishing a non-statutory model music curriculum for key stages 1 to 3. This will expand on the statutory programmes of study and act as a benchmark for all schools.
Ofsted’s new education inspection framework, which comes into effect in September, has a strong emphasis on ensuring schools provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all their pupils.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of primary schools are engaging with the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) programme.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested is not held centrally. It is up to schools which teaching programmes they adopt.
The department has recently made relationships education compulsory for all primary age pupils; relationships and sex education compulsory for all secondary age pupils; and health education universally compulsory from September 2020. We are aware that many schools already deliver much of this content, often as part of an existing personal, social, health and economic education programme. The focus of the subjects is on ensuring that all children receive teaching on important topics like mental wellbeing, respectful relationships, and being safe. The statutory guidance has now been published and this encourages schools to adopt an evidence based approach to developing these subjects. The guidance is attached and is also available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional support, funding, and guidance they intend to provide to schools to (1) limit the availability of sugar products in schools, and (2) become sugar-free.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
This government wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished. We encourage a healthy balanced diet and healthy life choices through school funding, legislation and guidance. The attached School Food Standards provide the legislative framework to ensure schools provide children with healthy food and drink options.
On 18 August 2016, the government published its plan for action (attached) to significantly reduce childhood obesity by supporting healthier choices.
One of the commitments in the plan was to update the School Food Standards. The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at both lunchtime and at other times of the school day, including, for example, breakfast clubs, tuck shops, mid-morning break, vending machines and after school clubs. The standards severely restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods. They ensure that pupils always have healthy options for their school lunch.
We are working with Public Health England to update the regulations. This will focus on reducing sugar consumption and will be supported by detailed guidance to caterers and schools. More detail will follow shortly.