Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to encourage new entrants into the apprenticeship training market.
Answered by Anne Milton
Since May 2017, all providers who want to deliver apprenticeship training must be on the register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP). The introduction of the RoATP, which currently has over 2,600 providers listed, has made it easier for new providers, including small providers, to enter the apprenticeship training market. Ahead of the opening of the RoATP, the Education and Skills Funding Agency raised awareness of the requirement to register and the application process. This included providing webinars, direct engagement and information through representative bodies. Providers who are not on the RoATP, including small providers, are able to operate as a sub-contractor to a main provider who is on the RoATP, up to a limit of £100,000 a year.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of contracts awarded through the apprenticeship levy were valued at less than £500,000.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency do not award contracts through the apprenticeship levy; providers are admitted to the register of apprenticeship training providers and employers select them to deliver the training that they need.
In regards to non-levy contracts awarded under the recent non-levy apprenticeship procurement, 351 contracts, approximately 49 per cent of contracts granted were for values under £500,000.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of pupils taking up STEM and ICT higher education courses in the last five years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service publishes data on the number of applicants accepted to full-time undergraduate courses at UK higher education providers by subject group.
The number of UK domiciled 18 and 19 year olds accepted to full-time undergraduate courses in each science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject group is shown in the attached Table 1. It shows that total acceptances to STEM subjects for UK 18 and 19 year olds had increased by 24% between 2012 and 2017. This compares to an increase of 14% for all subjects over the same period.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to promote University Technical Colleges.
Answered by Anne Milton
The University Technical Colleges (UTC) programme has an important role to play in our reforms to technical education, with strong UTCs succeeding in equipping young people with the skills businesses need, getting them into employment and supporting social mobility.
There are regulations in place that require local authorities to write to parents of pupils in Year 9 to notify them of schools with atypical ages of admission within reasonable travelling distance, which includes UTCs, to make sure they are aware of the choices available to them. Early indications suggest that these letters have had a positive impact on awareness of UTCs and supported their recruitment.
Recent changes to the Careers Guidance legislation also requires maintained schools and academies to provide opportunities for providers of technical education, such as UTCs, to visit schools to talk to students in Years 8-13, to inform them of their offer.
UTCs are sponsored by employers and they are essential to marketing efforts by UTCs to promote their offer. Employers can demonstrate to pupils how attending the UTC can lead to a successful career. Employers taking a sustained and embedded role in supporting the UTC programme is crucial to their success.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to put technical courses on parity with academic courses.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government is transforming technical education to create a high quality system that meets the skills needs of businesses and is held in the same high esteem as our academic option. 15 prestigious technical routes will set a clear path to skilled employment through reformed apprenticeships and the new flagship T Level programmes. T Levels are a central part of the greatest shake-up of technical education for 70 years and builds on the recommendations made by the Independent Panel on Technical Education, chaired by Lord Sainsbury. They will provide a distinctive and rigorous technical alternative to A levels.
They are, however, just one strand of our ambitious new technical education offer. We also intend to undertake a review of qualifications at Level 3 and below so that those we fund serve a genuine and useful purpose, are of high quality and enable students to progress to meaningful outcomes.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase entrepreneurship and business education in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are free to cover enterprise and entrepreneurship within their personal, social, health and economic education.
The Government’s careers strategy, published in December 2017, aims to give young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to learn from employers about work and the skills that are valued in the workplace: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/careers-strategy-making-the-most-of-everyones-skills-and-talents.
Statutory guidance sets out further details about the ambition that every school should offer every young person at least seven encounters with employers, including those who are self-employed, during their education as part of a high quality careers programme: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/careers-guidance-provision-for-young-people-in-schools. The Careers & Enterprise Company’s network of Enterprise Advisers will support the delivery of this ambition. Enterprise Advisers are senior business volunteers who help schools to work with local businesses.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to harness digital technology to deliver educational services.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is working with the education sector as well as researchers and the education technology industry to target the key challenges and highlight the opportunities that technology presents to empower teachers, leaders and providers to make better-informed decisions about the use of technology across education.
Tackling specific challenges, we recently announced a £7.7 million curriculum fund to encourage the development of high quality and knowledge-rich teaching resources. These resources, which could include digital as well as traditional materials, will help teachers deliver the government’s new curriculum while reducing workload and giving them more time to focus on teaching.
We are also investing £84 million of new funding over the next five years to deliver a comprehensive programme to improve the teaching of computing and drive up participation in computer science, particularly amongst girls.
At the last budget, we announced a £30 million National Retraining Scheme fund to deliver digital skills training using edtech and artificial intelligence so that students and trainees can benefit from this emerging technology, wherever they are in the country.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the use of digital technology for improving attainment across the curriculum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government’s approach is not to be interested in technology for its own sake, but rather how it can help teachers work more effectively and children to achieve. The Department has an enabling role so schools can take advantage of the opportunities, but not promoting particular approaches.
We are focused on three areas:
Unlocking innovation in the ed-tech industry by moving to a common set of standards for data within schools and government.
Building the evidence base of what works so schools can make informed decisions.
Helping teachers and school leaders to build their knowledge and understanding of technology so that they are able confidently to make best use of it.
Technology presents a number of opportunities to improve outcomes for children. Used well, technology can be a huge aid to schools, but the international evidence shows that caution is needed to ensure technology is used to best effect.