Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) female and (b) male apprentices are employed by his Department for Education on a part-time basis.
Answered by Anne Milton
The data on apprenticeship starts is not available in the format requested. The following number of people have started an apprenticeship in the department each year since 2012:
Year | Number of apprentice starts |
2012/2013 | 32 |
2013/2014 | 15 |
2014/2015 | 34 |
2015/2016 | 64 |
2016/2017 | 50 |
2017/2018 | 116 |
The following number of male and female apprentices are currently employed by the department. Mean and median salaries for currently employed male and female apprentices are also included in the attached table.
The number of part and full time male and female apprentices currently employed by the department is within the attached table.
We do not currently hold data on the outcome of apprenticeships for department employees. We are putting in place a mechanism to collect this data.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) male and (b) female apprentices are employed by his Department; and how many people have started an apprenticeship within his Department in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The data on apprenticeship starts is not available in the format requested. The following number of people have started an apprenticeship in the department each year since 2012:
Year | Number of apprentice starts |
2012/2013 | 32 |
2013/2014 | 15 |
2014/2015 | 34 |
2015/2016 | 64 |
2016/2017 | 50 |
2017/2018 | 116 |
The following number of male and female apprentices are currently employed by the department. Mean and median salaries for currently employed male and female apprentices are also included in the attached table.
The number of part and full time male and female apprentices currently employed by the department is within the attached table.
We do not currently hold data on the outcome of apprenticeships for department employees. We are putting in place a mechanism to collect this data.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds (a) started and (b) completed apprenticeships in 2017.
Answered by Anne Milton
The information requested is not held centrally.
The department did publish a set of ad-hoc data tables on 1 March 2018 that included apprenticeship participation broken down by the indices of multiple deprivation rank based on the learners home postcode covering the 2015/16 academic year. The data on apprenticeship completions is not available.
The ‘Further education: indices of deprivation, England: 2015 to 2016’ tables can be viewed via: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-indices-of-deprivation-england-2015-to-2016.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to monitor access to apprenticeships by young people of all socio-economic backgrounds as part of its social mobility strategy.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department has set an ambitious targets to increase the proportion of apprenticeships started by people of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities by 20 per cent by 2020 (from a baseline average of 10 per cent during 2010-15 Parliament). We also want to increase the proportion of higher value apprenticeship starts for disadvantaged apprentices which includes young people.
We have set out how we will measure and report progress against these ambitions in our Apprenticeship Reform Programme Benefits Realisation document (March 2017) published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/604401/Apprenticeship_Reform_Programme_-_Benefits_Realisation_Strategy.pdf. This includes statistical data including the apprenticeship level, age group, sector subject area, region and diversity characteristics.
In addition, we are currently undertaking the FE Learner and Apprentices survey, including approximately 6,500 apprentices, to collect detailed demographic and social mobility data along with information on barriers to learning.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to (a) cap or (b) reduce the interest rate applied to student loans.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
We have a world class student finance system, which has enabled record numbers of people to benefit from a university education. Latest UCAS data for 2017 shows more disadvantaged young people have been accepted to university than for the whole of the 2016 application cycle.
The student funding system removes financial barriers for anyone hoping to study, and is backed by the taxpayer. The interest rate on student loans remains significantly below the relevant Bank of England reference rate for unsecured personal lending. In addition, the repayment terms of student loans are significantly more favourable for the borrowers than commercial loans. Monthly repayments are linked to income and not to the amount borrowed or the interest rate. Borrowers earning less than the repayment threshold of £21,000 repay nothing at all. Loans are written off after 30 years with no detriment to the borrower, and student loans are available to all eligible students regardless of their previous financial history.
As with all Government policy, we continue to keep the detailed features of the system under review to ensure it remains fair and effective.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on the public purse of the write-off student loans after the 30 year term expires.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government’s reforms to the undergraduate student finance system have ensured that it is financially sustainable for the taxpayer in the long-term, while enabling those with the talent to benefit from a higher education to be able to afford to do so.
The Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge estimates the value of loans that will not be repaid during their 30-year term, expressed as a percentage of the loan outlay made in the relevant year. For full time tuition fee and maintenance loans and part time fee loans issued in 2016/17, we estimate the RAB charge to be around 30%.