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 underlying causes of the reduction in apprenticeship starts; and what action they intend to take to increase the number of those undertaking apprenticeships.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is moving away from old apprenticeship frameworks, which employers said were often not equipping apprentices to do the job, towards new, higher quality apprenticeship standards being designed by employers themselves.
We are making sure that apprenticeships at every level are providing high quality training. Our reforms are making apprenticeships longer, more relevant, with additional off the job training and more rigorous assessments. The 20% off the job training rule, the shift to higher quality standards with a longer average duration, and the drop off in frameworks, have already contributed to a 20% rise in expected apprenticeship training hours over the past year. Apprenticeships on the new apprenticeship standards make up 37% of overall starts, compared to 3% this time last year.
We will continue to work closely with employers to help them take advantage of the reforms in order to grow their apprenticeship programmes and invest in the long-term skills needs of their businesses. We recently introduced the ability for levy-paying employers to transfer up to 10% of their funds to other employers, supporting further growth in starts. We meet regularly and frequently with business groups, giving them the opportunity to let us know what more we can do to make the reforms work better for them.
The department recently published an update on the progress of Apprenticeships reform. Please find a copy attached.
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 support micro-businesses in the creative industries in providing apprenticeships.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We regularly publish data on apprenticeships, which can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-education-and-skills-statistical-first-release-sfr. This includes analysis of the number of apprenticeship starts by Sector Subject Area (SSA). Our most recent statistical release shows that starts in the Arts, Media and Publishing SSA have increased 14% on the year, though employers in the creatives industries will also hire apprentices in other SSAs.
The Department for Education works closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to understand the impact of the apprenticeship reforms on the creative industries. As part of this, we have committed to inviting an employer representative from the creative industries to sit on our Apprenticeship Stakeholder Board.
Government provides generous funding to smaller employers who do not pay the levy. Non-levy payers must co-invest only 10% of the costs of apprentice training and assessment in order to access 90% government funding. For micro-businesses with less than 50 employees, the 10% co-investment is waived when they hire a 16-18 year old apprentice or a 19-24 year old apprentice who is a care leaver or who has an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Our communications and engagement work helps to make sure that as many employers of all sizes are aware of the apprenticeship reforms and the benefits of taking on an apprentice. Over 40,000 employers have visited our Get in Go Far website since the current phase of the campaign launched in January, and there have been over 1.4 million views of our adverts on social media. Our national employer helpline is open all year round.
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 the apprenticeship levy on training and apprenticeships in the creative industries.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We regularly publish data on apprenticeships, which can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-education-and-skills-statistical-first-release-sfr. This includes analysis of the number of apprenticeship starts by Sector Subject Area (SSA). Our most recent statistical release shows that starts in the Arts, Media and Publishing SSA have increased 14% on the year, though employers in the creatives industries will also hire apprentices in other SSAs.
The Department for Education works closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to understand the impact of the apprenticeship reforms on the creative industries. As part of this, we have committed to inviting an employer representative from the creative industries to sit on our Apprenticeship Stakeholder Board.
Government provides generous funding to smaller employers who do not pay the levy. Non-levy payers must co-invest only 10% of the costs of apprentice training and assessment in order to access 90% government funding. For micro-businesses with less than 50 employees, the 10% co-investment is waived when they hire a 16-18 year old apprentice or a 19-24 year old apprentice who is a care leaver or who has an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Our communications and engagement work helps to make sure that as many employers of all sizes are aware of the apprenticeship reforms and the benefits of taking on an apprentice. Over 40,000 employers have visited our Get in Go Far website since the current phase of the campaign launched in January, and there have been over 1.4 million views of our adverts on social media. Our national employer helpline is open all year round.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the amount of existing training activity that companies will be able to re-badge into level 2 apprenticeships in order to comply with new regulations.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
It is not the intention of the apprenticeship programme that companies should re-badge existing training to comply with apprenticeship regulations. Apprenticeships are a specific product defined in law. We are introducing new employer-designed standards to improve the quality of the offer and better meet employers’ skill needs, and have committed to all new apprentices being on the new standards by 2020. 253 standards are ready for delivery, and a further 277 are currently in development. Our intention is to maintain and improve apprenticeship quality, and ensure that government funds are spent on approved training to build the knowledge, skills and behaviours to achieve competency in a true occupation.
We have implemented extensive measures underpinned by statutory regulations to safeguard and improve the quality of learning provided through the apprenticeships programme.
We are continuing to focus on the quality of apprenticeships by insisting that all apprenticeships must be real paid jobs; have a minimum duration of 12 months; involve sustained training and acquisition of skills through off-the-job training; and must include English and maths for those who have not previously achieved good GCSEs in those subjects.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan for the Institute for Apprenticeships to take on responsibility for the new T level qualifications.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We are working closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) to prepare for the transfer of responsibility for T levels. The transfer will take place once their new legal powers have been commenced. More details will be set out in the forthcoming strategic guidance to the IfA.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent they envisage that Trailblazer groups of employers will be used to inform the development of core content for T level qualifications.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Trailblazer groups sit within the Institute for Apprenticeships and their primary purpose is the development of apprenticeship standards. These standards are being used by T level panels (advisory groups of employers, professionals and practitioners) to help inform the development of outline content for new T level qualifications, which comprises of both core and specialist content.
We are keen to encourage more members of Trailblazer groups to apply to be members of T level panels, to help strengthen the alignment of T level content to apprenticeship standards. We recently launched the second phase of recruitment for T level panels who will develop content for the routes that will be delivered from 2022.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent they envisage that digital skills, English, maths and literacy will be included in the core content for T level qualifications.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
As recommended by the Sainsbury Review, in our public consultation on T levels we proposed that occupation-specific mathematics, English and digital skills are embedded within each technical qualification. This will ensure that students continue to develop and apply these skills throughout their T level programme, supporting progression to a range of occupations. We also proposed that T level panels should be able to include higher standards of mathematics and English, such as core mathematics or A level mathematics, if it is needed for employment in their sector. This would be subject to approval from the Institute for Apprenticeships.
We plan to publish our response to the public consultation later this spring. In the meantime, we are working with a range of mathematics, English and digital experts to ensure that the content of the first three T levels to be delivered from September 2020 is coherent, at the appropriate level and supports progression. This includes working with the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on Maths Education, in line with the recommendations of the Smith Review of post-16 mathematics.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to encourage more universities to become involved in the university technical colleges programme.
Answered by Lord Nash
We outlined in the Schools that Work for Everyone consultation our proposals for universities having a greater involvement in the establishment and sponsorship of schools including UTCs. The consultation ended on 12 December 2016. The results of the consultation and the department’s response will be published on GOV.UK in Spring 2017.
We have awarded a grant to the Baker Dearing Educational Trust to provide advice, guidance and support to universities and others wishing to submit applications to establish University Technical Colleges (UTCs).
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which universities are partners in university technical colleges; and which technical specialisms those universities support.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are 48 open UTCs. The attachment lists their technical specialism and their university sponsors. The universities support the specialisms in a range of ways.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many occupational standards have been developed as a result of the apprenticeship trailblazers programme and to what occupations they relate.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are currently 202 groups of employers that have developed or are developing 441 standards. Of these, 146 standards are already approved for delivery - apprentices can start on them and Government funding for training can be used to support their delivery.
Development of apprenticeship standards continues in a broad range of occupations, from aerospace engineer to banking relationship manager, and includes professions such as manufacturing engineer and chartered surveyor.
A full list of all the standards is available in the attached document and at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/558940/Apps_standards_list_071016.pdf