Asked by: Giles Watling (Conservative - Clacton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to introduce an arts premium following the conclusion of the Spending Review 2021.
Answered by Robin Walker
The government is committed to high-quality education for all pupils, and arts and music are integral to this. With the significant impact of COVID-19 on children’s learning, the department’s priorities have inevitably had to focus on education recovery over the next 3 years.
The department will continue to invest around £115 million per annum in cultural education over the next three years, through our music, arts and heritage programmes. This includes Music Education Hubs, the Music and Dance Scheme, British Film Academy, the Bridge organisations, and working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Arts Council England and others.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the additional £1 billion new funding announced specifically for recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in the arts.
Asked by: Giles Watling (Conservative - Clacton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to encourage the energy industry to increase the number of apprenticeships in that industry.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
We have put employers at the heart of our apprenticeship system, empowering them to design the standards they need to meet their emerging skills needs in a changing economy. The independent Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education supports employers to develop standards and acts as the guarantor of their quality. Apprenticeships available in the sector include junior energy manager, smart home technician and power engineer.
Employers in the energy industry in England can use their apprenticeship levy funds to invest in these new high quality apprenticeship standards, unlocking the productivity benefits associated with employing apprentices.
We are encouraged to see companies in the energy sector engaging positively with the apprenticeship system. E.ON, for example, has apprentices working throughout its business in areas as diverse as cyber security, renewables, smart metering and customer service.
Asked by: Giles Watling (Conservative - Clacton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of women taking up careers in STEM.
Answered by Anne Milton
In order to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industries, we are encouraging more girls to take STEM subjects at school, college and university, as well as providing improved careers advice and awareness and working with the STEM sector to champion gender representation.
We announced substantial spending commitments in the Autumn Budget 2017 on maths, digital and technical education. We are funding programmes to increase the take-up of maths, such as the Advanced Maths Premium, and physics, through the Stimulating Physics Network, which has a specific strand focusing on increasing the number of girls in physics A level.
We are supporting better teaching of maths, science and computing in schools, including a new £84 million programme for computing teaching and participation. As part of this investment, we also launched the Gender Balance in Computing pilot programme this year, which aims to identify practical interventions that schools (at all stages, excluding post-16) can implement to improve girls’ participation in computing.
We have committed to improving STEM careers advice in schools in the Careers Strategy, including making sure that STEM encounters, such as with employers and apprenticeships, are built into school career programmes by updating school and college statutory guidance. We are also raising awareness of the range of careers that STEM qualifications offer, through programmes such as STEM ambassadors. 44% of these ambassadors are women.
Finally, we are taking steps to work with the sector through apprenticeships and using the employer Apprenticeships Diversity Champions Network, now employing 70 members, to champion gender representation in industries where improvement is needed.