Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings in the OECD Adult Skills survey, published in 2012, which found that the UK is the only country where the numeracy skills of 16- to 24-year-olds were lower than the over-55 age group; and what actions they are taking to address this.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We recognise the importance of numeracy skills, both in work and everyday life, as securing good levels of numeracy increases individual productivity and improves earnings and employment opportunities. Our policy is to offer everyone mathematics qualifications and courses which are of high quality and which lead to genuine improvements in skills.
Since the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development survey was published eight years ago, we have taken a number of steps to improve numeracy skills particularly for this age group.
We have introduced a requirement that 16 to 19 year old students on a study programme without GCSE mathematics grade 4 or above must continue to study the subject. We have also ensured mathematics skills are a requirement of apprenticeships and T Levels.
As well as GCSE mathematics, post-16 students can also study Functional Skills mathematics. We have recently reformed these qualifications to improve their rigour and relevance, and to ensure they provide students with the essential skills they need for life and work.
In 2019, 76.2% of 19 year olds held a level 2 qualification in mathematics, an increase of 3.8 percentage points since 2013/2014 (the year before we required students to continue studying English and mathematics).
This is in addition to our continued support for adults, through our statutory entitlement. All adults who are yet to achieve a GCSE grade 4 or above, or an equivalent qualification, in mathematics can access this provision free of charge, regardless of income or employment status.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, for the most recent year in which figures are available, (1) how many, and (2) what percentage of, companies which pay the apprenticeship levy spent their entire apprenticeship fund in that year.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Employers in England who pay the apprenticeship levy can access funds for apprenticeship training by registering for an apprenticeship service account. The funds in employers’ accounts reflect the ‘English percentage’ of an employer’s levy contribution and include a 10% top-up from the government. During the 2019-20 financial year, 15% of employer accounts fully utilised the funds entering the levy-payer’s account. This is shown in the attached table.
Levy declarations relating to the 2019-20 financial year entered employer accounts between May 2019 and April 2020, as payments enter accounts a month in arrears. Payments relating to the 2019-20 financial year were made between May 2019 and April 2020, also a month in arrears. These payments cover the cost of apprenticeships training only. The cost of any additional payments to employers and/or providers and additional support, such as for English and maths training, is met by the apprenticeship budget and therefore is not deducted from employer’s accounts.
Employers have 24 months to spend the funds available to them. It is therefore possible for employers to spend more than they declare in a financial year.
Spending on the apprenticeship programme is demand-led and employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many they offer and when they are offered. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to do so if they wish.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ring-fence an allocation of the apprenticeship levy for the training of people aged between 16 to 24; and if they have such plans, (1) what percentage of the levy they intend to ring-fence, and (2) by when it will be ringfenced.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We know that young people are likely to be disproportionately affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. To help businesses offer new apprenticeships, we are providing a payment to employers (in England) of £2,000 if they hire a new apprentice under the age of 25, and £1,500 for apprentices aged 25 or over.
The levy is an important part of our approach to raising apprenticeship quality and supporting employers to make a long-term, sustainable investment in training. The apprenticeship budget funds the cost of training for both levy-paying and non levy-paying employers, as well as apprenticeships that started prior to the reforms. In the 2020-21 financial year, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England will remain around £2.5 billion, double what was spent in the 2010-11 financial year. It is for employers to choose the apprenticeships they want for their employees, and so funds are not allocated specifically to support training for apprentices of different ages.
We are working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions to develop a programme of work, to engage with Kickstart employers and to support them to move young people onto an apprenticeship in their organisation, where this is appropriate. We have recently amended our funding rules to ensure that employers taking on an apprentice who has previously been on the Kickstart scheme is eligible for the incentive payments.
We are tripling the scale of traineeships, providing an additional 30,000 places in the 2020/21 academic year, to ensure that more young people have access to high-quality training. We have introduced incentive payments of £1,000 per learner for employers who create new work placements available this academic year. Employers that offer traineeships nationally can claim the new payment for up to 10 learners in each region. For those who are not able to take up a job or work-based learning offer, we will fund up to another year of classroom-based study in high value skill areas to support young people’s progression into employment. We will fund extra places for specific high value courses at level 3 and level 2 that are aligned to priority areas for economic recovery.
Careers information, advice and guidance is crucial to help people to achieve the skills and experience that they need and meet the demands of businesses and employers for a skilled and flexible workforce. That is why we are investing an additional £32 million in the National Careers Service up to March 2022. This investment will provide individual careers advice for 270,000 more people whose jobs or learning have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of COVID-19 on the number of international students wishing to study at UK universities; and what steps they will take to counter the effects of a long-term reduction in international student numbers.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Shadow Minister (Culture, Media and Sport)
The government recognises that the COVID-19 outbreak will have an unparalleled impact on all elements of the global and UK economy. The higher education sector, including student recruitment, is no exception. We have been working closely with the sector to monitor possible impacts of COVID-19 on international student numbers, including restrictions on travel.
We have been clear that our world-leading universities, which thrive on being global institutions, will always be open to international students. Engaging closely with other government departments and the higher education sector, the Department for Education is working to reassure current and prospective international students that UK higher education is ‘open for business’ and remains world-class, and that the UK is a safe and welcoming place to study. This engagement includes continued work with Study UK (the government’s international student recruitment campaign, led by the British Council), support for the sector-led #WeAreTogether campaign, and a package of communications targeted directly at international students, making clear our world-leading offer.
My hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, wrote an open letter to current international students in April, setting out flexibilities that HM Government and higher education providers were introducing to ensure that international students could continue or resume their studies. With her counterparts in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales, she also wrote on 22 June to prospective international students to outline the support and guidance available to those considering studying in the UK from this autumn. This letter reiterates a number of flexibilities that the government has already announced for international students. These include allowing for the switching of visa categories within the UK, confirmation that distance/blended learning will be permitted for the 2020/21 academic year (provided that international students’ sponsors intend to move to face-to-face learning as soon as circumstances allow) and steps further to promote the new graduate route, which will be introduced from summer 2021.
The graduate route will be simple and light-touch: it will permit graduates at undergraduate or Masters level to remain in the UK for 2 years and PhD graduates to remain in the UK for 3 years after they have finished their studies in order to work or look for work at any skill level. This represents a significant increase in the generosity of our offer to international students and will help ensure the UK higher education sector remains competitive internationally. On 16 June, the government also confirmed that international students present in the UK before 6 April 2021 will be eligible for the graduate route if they meet the other requirements of the route when it is introduced.
My hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, also announced that Sir Steve Smith would act as the UK’s new International Education Champion. He will assist with opening up export growth opportunities for the whole UK education sector, which will include attracting international students to UK universities. In addition, our review of the International Education Strategy this autumn will respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19 across all education settings.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review (1) the apprenticeship system, and (2) the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The government is committed to improving the working of the apprenticeship system and the apprenticeship levy. We are continuing to engage closely with businesses and to listen to their views about the operation of the levy and the apprenticeships programme more broadly, taking into account the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The government’s ‘Plan for Jobs’ will help to kickstart the nation’s economic recovery and apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow, both now and in the long-term.
We recognise that employers at the moment face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices and so we will introduce a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. Details can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that employers use at least half of their apprenticeship levy spend on new starters.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The apprenticeship programme is employer-led. The department’s reforms have put employers in the driving seat, supporting them to design the high-quality apprenticeship standards that meet their skills needs. It is also for employers to decide which apprenticeships they offer, when, and to whom.
Apprenticeships provide valuable opportunities for people of all ages. While the department has no current plans to restrict the use of employer’s levy funds, all aspects of the programme will be kept under review in response to employer feedback and as preparations for a comprehensive Spending Review next year continue.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that employers use at least half of their apprenticeship levy spend on apprentices who are under 30 years of age.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The apprenticeship programme is employer-led. The department’s reforms have put employers in the driving seat, supporting them to design the high-quality apprenticeship standards that meet their skills needs. It is also for employers to decide which apprenticeships they offer, when, and to whom.
Apprenticeships provide valuable opportunities for people of all ages. While the department has no current plans to restrict the use of employer’s levy funds, all aspects of the programme will be kept under review in response to employer feedback and as preparations for a comprehensive Spending Review next year continue.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to introduce to the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) a greater emphasis on STEAM subjects; and what consideration they have given to including qualifications in design to count towards the EBacc.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government has no plans to change the EBacc. It has been designed to be limited in size in order to allow pupils to continue to study additional subjects that reflect their individual interests and strengths. The subjects that make up the EBacc are based on the subjects which the Russell Group says at A level open more doors to more degrees at their universities. They provide a basis for a variety of careers beyond the age of 16. They give pupils a broad general knowledge that will enable them to participate in and contribute to society.
The government introduced the EBacc as a school performance measure in 2010 to encourage schools to enter more pupils for the core academic subjects of English, maths, science, history or geography and a language. Entries to the science component of the EBacc have increased from 63% in 2010 to 95% in 2018.
Under the new national curriculum, design and technology (D&T) remains a compulsory subject in all maintained schools during key stage 3, and schools are required to offer it at key stage 4. We have worked with organisations such as the James Dyson Foundation and the Royal Academy of Engineering to reform the D&T GCSE and curriculum. The new GCSE was first taught in September 2017. It is now a subject which has been updated from its craft-based routes to a cutting-edge qualification, focusing on iterative design processes which are at the core of contemporary practice.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of mature students studying part-time for level 4 and level 5 qualifications in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Studying part-time and later in life can bring considerable benefits for individuals, employers and the economy. For the first time this academic year, part-time students will be able to access full-time equivalent maintenance loans.
The Review of Post-18 Education and Funding will look at how we can encourage learning that is more flexible, like part-time, distance learning and commuter study options.
In addition, the Department for Education is undertaking a review of level 4 and 5 education, focusing on how technical qualifications at this level can better address the needs of learners and employers.
As part of the review, we want to ensure that any considerations are properly addressed and that provision helps support progression for learners of all backgrounds, including young people and more mature learners looking to upskill or retrain.
We expect to publish level 4-5 proposals for consultation alongside the conclusion of the Post-18 Review in early 2019.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the withdrawal of the nursing bursary on the number of applications for nursing degree courses in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department is working with relevant bodies across health and education to monitor the effects of the healthcare funding reforms, including the impact on application numbers.
There is still strong demand for nursing courses. While the latest UCAS figures for 31 August 2018 show that English acceptances to nursing courses have fallen by 3.7% compared to the previous year, there are still more applicants than places available for them.
The Department for Health and Social Care is working with Health Education England and the university sector to ensure students continue to apply for courses up to the end of clearing in October 2018 and in future years.
We have also opened new work-based learning routes into the nursing profession for those who may not be able to study full-time.