Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which there is a skills shortage in the technology sector; in particular, in respect of emerging technologies.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The recently published Digital Strategy (June 2022) identifies the supply of digitally and tech-enabled workers, at all levels, as crucial for the UK’s long-term economic prosperity. It estimates that the digital skills gap costs the UK economy £63 billion per year in lost potential gross domestic product. This gap cuts across all areas of the economy and is expected to widen. The department's Employer Skills Survey (2019) identifies that two-fifths of skills gaps (38%) involved a deficiency in digital skills, which includes both basic computer literacy and IT skills, as well as more advanced or specialist IT skills.
Building on the vision of the Skills for Jobs White Paper (January 2021), the department is working closely with the industry to tailor training offers to meet their needs and strengthen progression routes into the tech sector. We are growing the prestigious apprenticeships programme, rolling out T Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications, and investing in Institutes of Technology. We have overhauled the outdated ICT curriculum and replaced it with computing and invested £84 million to improve the quality of computing teaching in England and to inspire the next generation of computer scientists. The newly formed Digital Skills Council will provide a crucial forum for developing these interventions, ensuring they are relevant and responsive to emerging technologies.
In addition, the department has established a new Unit for Future Skills to improve the quality of jobs and skills data and to make these available and more accessible to policymakers, stakeholders, and the public. Last month the Unit for Future Skills published new data products on the routes that learners take through education and into employment in different industry sectors (including the IT sector), which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/unit-for-future-skills.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have made as part of their COVID-19 emergency planning to ensure that local authorities have adequate funding for children with child protection plans who may not be attending school.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
As both my right hon. Friends, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.
The government has announced £3.2 billion of additional funding to support local authorities in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This funding is not ringfenced and is intended to help local authorities address any pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, across all service areas, including children’s social care.
Our latest guidance on vulnerable children is set out below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.
These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.
Asked by: Baroness Uddin (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to ensure that all academy schools, their leaders, boards of directors, advisers and heads of department, adhere to all aspects of equality legislation in the UK.
Answered by Lord Nash
Academy trusts, and the academies they run, are required to adhere to all aspects of equality legislation. The Department’s model funding agreement for academy trusts, available on GOV.UK, states that the academy trust must ensure the academy promotes principles that support equality of opportunity for all. The Education Funding Agency is responsible, on behalf of the Secretary of State, for holding academy trusts to account for meeting the terms of their funding agreements.