Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Association of Employment and Learning Providers on the nature of their involvement with and contribution to the Institute of Apprenticeships.
Answered by Nick Boles
I will be meeting with the incoming CEO of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers later this month. My officials have regular discussions with the Association on all aspects of apprenticeships policy.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with other government departments on the future roles of HEFCE and the Quality Assurance Agency.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government published a Green Paper ‘Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice’ on 6 November 2015. This set out our proposals to drive up the quality of teaching in higher education, and for simplifying the higher education regulatory landscape with a higher education regulator that has the student interest at its core. The consultation closed on 15 January 2016 and we received over 600 responses. In developing both the Green Paper and our response to the consultation, we have consulted extensively across the sector and continue to do so. No decisions have yet been taken and the Government will issue its response in due course.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the Further Education Act 1992 gives HEFCE current statutory responsibility for degree standards.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Further and Higher Education Act 1992 enables the Privy Council to bestow degree awarding powers on institutions which provide higher education, and foundation degree awarding powers on institutions within the further education sector. The Privy Council bestows these powers upon the advice of the Secretary of State who, in turn, obtains information and advice from HEFCE and the Quality Assurance Agency. HEFCE’s role in this process is explained in government guidance. Guidance for foundation degrees is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foundation-degree-awarding-powers.
Guidance for other degrees can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/taught-and-research-degree-awarding-powers
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what role he plans that further education providers and colleges will have in the governance and delivery of the Institute of Apprenticeships.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Board of the Institute will be comprised primarily of employers, business leaders and their representatives to ensure that employers continue to drive apprenticeship quality at the highest level. The Institute will also be able to draw on the expertise of education providers, colleges and others in the exercise of its functions.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if the Government will continue to pay for training to enable apprentices to achieve Level 2 or GCSEs in English and mathematics, as required, once the Apprenticeship Levy has been introduced.
Answered by Nick Boles
Apprentices have to meet a minimum standard in both English and maths up to Level 2. There are specific qualifications they must achieve. If an apprentice does not already have these, they may need to do an English or maths course. We will pay providers directly, for the Level 1 and 2 English and maths training they provide to apprentices.
Further information on the amount that will be paid for English and maths training for apprentices who require it, will be published provisionally in June 2016 and confirmed in October 2016.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on taking steps to tackle recent reductions in the number of employers posting apprenticeship vacancies.
Answered by Nick Boles
Latest data shows that whilst the number of employers advertising vacancies has fallen, the number of apprenticeship opportunities posted on the ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website has increased each year from 71,060 in 2010/11 to 200,460 in 2014/15.
The Apprenticeship Delivery Board and Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network work with employers to champion apprenticeships and increase the number of places on offer. The Skills Funding Agency also works closely with the National Employer Services Team in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to encourage employers to offer apprenticeships.
We are launching a new apprenticeships communications campaign in May, jointly designed with DWP, which will promote the benefits of apprenticeships to young people, parents and employers. This will build on National Apprenticeship Week 2016, which saw more than 30,000 apprenticeship places pledged by businesses.
We also work closely with DWP to ensure that information about apprenticeship vacancies is available to jobseekers through Universal Jobmatch.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of proposals arising from the Review of Quality Assessment on the (a) cohesiveness of the UK-wide system of quality assessment and (b) adoption of that system by other countries.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Higher Education is a devolved matter. In England the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has statutory responsibility for assessing quality in the provision that it funds. There are parallel quality assessment (QA) arrangements in place that apply to alternative providers.
Officials in my Department have held a number of discussions with the devolved administrations and with HEFCE regarding HEFCE’s recent Review of Quality Assessment and its outcomes, including on how we are maintaining a cohesive, UK-wide approach to quality assessment. Further information on our future approach to quality assessment, across all types of HE providers, will be announced when we publish the response to our Higher Education Green Paper.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the funding councils' proposals arising from the Review of Quality Assessment will subject all UK universities, further education colleges offering UK higher education provision and all alternative providers, including their international reach, to the same system of external quality review.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Higher Education is a devolved matter. In England the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has statutory responsibility for assessing quality in the provision that it funds. There are parallel quality assessment (QA) arrangements in place that apply to alternative providers.
Officials in my Department have held a number of discussions with the devolved administrations and with HEFCE regarding HEFCE’s recent Review of Quality Assessment and its outcomes, including on how we are maintaining a cohesive, UK-wide approach to quality assessment. Further information on our future approach to quality assessment, across all types of HE providers, will be announced when we publish the response to our Higher Education Green Paper.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department has had with the devolved administrations on the implications for their policies of the outcome of the Review of Quality Assessment.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Higher Education is a devolved matter. In England the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has statutory responsibility for assessing quality in the provision that it funds. There are parallel quality assessment (QA) arrangements in place that apply to alternative providers.
Officials in my Department have held a number of discussions with the devolved administrations and with HEFCE regarding HEFCE’s recent Review of Quality Assessment and its outcomes, including on how we are maintaining a cohesive, UK-wide approach to quality assessment. Further information on our future approach to quality assessment, across all types of HE providers, will be announced when we publish the response to our Higher Education Green Paper.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how the Access to Higher Education Diploma will be funded from academic year 2016-17 onwards.
Answered by Nick Boles
From 1 August 2016, funding for learners to study an Access to HE Diploma will be as follows:
learners aged 19 or over who already have a full level 3 qualification will be able to access an Advanced Learner Loan;
for those aged 19 to 23 who do not currently have a first full level 3 the Skills Funding Agency will provide full funding as the individual will be exercising their level 3 entitlement.
Learners with an Advanced Learner Loan for their Access to HE Diploma course, who then go on to complete a course of Higher Education, will have the outstanding balance of their Advanced Learner Loan written off. Advanced Learner Loans for Access to HE Diploma courses continue to be accessed in good numbers.