Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department made before the introduction of the apprenticeship levy of the (a) proportion of apprenticeship levy funds that employers would use, (b) number of apprenticeships that would be delivered and (c) amount of employer apprenticeship levy funds that would be unspent between 2017 and 2019; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
In forecasts made before the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, it was anticipated that employers would use 13% of the levy funds available to them in the 2017-18 financial year. Data from the apprenticeship service show that employers used 9% (£191m) of the funds available to them in 2017-18.
Our annual budgets for the current Spending Review period (to the end of the 2019-20 financial year) were set to fund 3 million high quality apprenticeship starts by 2020, based on the mix of training levels and subjects that we expected employers to choose.
The apprenticeship levy helps to fund all apprenticeships for levy and non levy-paying employers. At the time that the levy was introduced, it was anticipated that a proportion of levy funds would remain unspent by employers. We have anticipated that employers will not use all the funds available to them, though they are able to.
The annual apprenticeships budget, set in advance by HM Treasury, is not dependent on levy receipts and must fund all learners in the system. When allocating this budget to fund apprenticeships, we included sufficient flexibility to accommodate variations in the level of employer demand.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts have been funded by unspent employer levy funds in (a) 2018 and (b) to the end of March 2019.
Answered by Anne Milton
In the first half of 2018/19 academic year there have been 214,200 apprenticeship starts reported to date. Of these, 105,700 (49%) starts have been directly supported by funds from levy payer’s apprenticeship service accounts. There have also been 108,500 (51%) starts which have not been supported directly by levy funds, and the majority of these starts will be with non levy-paying employers.
We publish data on apprenticeship starts on a monthly basis at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-education-and-skills-statistical-first-release-sfr.
In the 2019-20 financial year, the annual funding allocated to the Department for Education for apprenticeships in England is over £2.5 billion. This funding is distinct from levy receipts and is used to fund new apprenticeship starts for both levy and non-levy paying employers, and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices that are already in training. It is therefore not possible to provide data on how many apprenticeship starts have been funded by unspent employer levy funds as all apprenticeship starts are funded from the Department for Education’s budget. At present, there are no plans to spend expired levy funds on programmes other than apprenticeships.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the Government’s progress on delivering three million apprenticeships by 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
In 2015 we set an ambitious goal of 3 million high quality apprenticeships by 2020 and that remains our ambition, but we will not sacrifice quality to meet this figure. We have introduced a wide range of reforms to apprenticeships to improve their quality and to encourage employers across England to increase the number of apprenticeships that they offer.
There have been 1,709,500 apprenticeship starts in England between May 2015 and January 2019.
We regularly report on progress toward the target in our apprenticeships and traineeships publications, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
To support all employers to make the long-term, sustainable investment in training, in April 2019 we halved the co-investment rate from 10% to 5% for new starts and have increased the amount that levy-paying employers can transfer to other employers from 10% to 25%.
We are working to raise awareness of apprenticeships across the country and the benefits that they bring to both employers and apprentices. Our ‘Fire It Up’ communication campaign seeks to change the way that people think about apprenticeships and to demonstrate that apprenticeships are an aspirational choice for anyone.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the importance of Level 2 and Level 3 apprenticeships in delivering three million apprenticeships by 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
Our reforms allow employers to choose the type, quality, level and frequency of apprenticeships that they offer in order to meet their current and future skills needs.
Level 2 and 3 apprenticeships play an important role in meeting these needs as well as providing valuable opportunities for individuals. Apprenticeships at these levels still account for the vast majority of apprenticeship starts. For example, in the first half of 2018/19, there were nearly 175,000 starts at levels 2 and 3, which represents 82% of total starts for the period.
There are now 440 industry-designed standards, of which 269 are at levels 2 and 3, meaning there are apprenticeship opportunities at all levels. During the first half of 2018/19, nearly 60% of starts were on these new standards. We can see that employers are moving quickly to this new higher quality offer.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria his Department is using to assess the performance of the apprenticeship levy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
We have implemented a range of reforms to ensure more high quality apprenticeship opportunities, including the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, new funding system and industry-designed standards. Our reforms are still relatively recent and it will take time for the full benefits of the apprenticeships programme to be realised.
Our apprenticeships reform programme benefits realisation strategy, published in March 2017, sets out a broad range of performance measures for the programme. Measures include the number of apprenticeship starts, earnings upon completion, results from employer and learner surveys and the Further Education (FE) Skills Index, which is a measure of the productivity impact of the programme over time.
The Skills Index enables us to compare the value of skills investments across the FE sector, including apprenticeships. The Skills Index looks at the number of learners and the employment rate for those learners as well as expected additional earnings. We have added a value of 2% to apprenticeships between the 2016/17 and 2017/18 academic years which we attribute to an increased volume of advanced and higher apprenticeship achievers as well as a small shift towards sectors with higher wage returns.
We publish annual updates against our progress. Our last update, published on 30 April 2019, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-reform-programme-benefits-realisation-strategy.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2019 to Question 243420, what data the Government uses to determine the number of (a) apprenticeships delivered in each sector and (b) apprenticeship levy funded apprenticeships delivered in each sector; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Education and Skills Funding Agency does not require levy-paying employers to document their industry sector when registering an apprenticeship service account, neither does it require employers who do not pay the levy to register an industry sector before training their apprentices.
For the period covering the 2012/13 to 2016/17 academic years, the Department for Education used the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) matched with the Inter-Departmental Business Register to determine the number of apprenticeship starts in each industry sector. This information is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/apprenticeships-in-england-by-industry-characteristics. Figures for the 2017/18 academic year are planned to be published in Autumn 2019.
The department also uses data from the apprenticeship service and the ILR to obtain figures on the number of levy and non-levy supported apprenticeship starts broken down by apprenticeship sector subject area. The latest statistics covering sector subject area breakdowns for apprenticeship starts are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-education-and-skills-statistical-first-release-sfr.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the apprenticeship levy is being spent on MBA or equivalent qualifications.
Answered by Anne Milton
Successful completion of the level 7 Senior Leader standard may lead to either of the three qualifications: MA, MSc or MBA.
The total percentage spend by both levy and non-levy employers on the level 7 Senior Leader apprenticeship standard for the past 2 financial years is below:
Year | Standard | Percentage |
2017-18 | Senior Leader level 7 Standard | 0.02% |
2018-19* | Senior Leader level 7 Standard | 0.51% |
|
| TOTAL : 0.28% |
*2018-19 is provisional data.
The figures are based on the number of all apprenticeship starts for the level 7 Senior Leader apprenticeship standard by levy and non-levy employers against total apprenticeship spend for both financial years.
Details of the Senior Leader standard can be found on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s website at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/senior-leader/.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the highest amount is of apprenticeship levy funds that an employer can spend for a single apprenticeship.
Answered by Anne Milton
The new 30-band funding structure was introduced on 1 August 2018 for all new apprenticeship starts. Details can be found within ‘Apprenticeship Funding in England’ published on GOV.UK, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/788312/Apprenticeship_funding_in_England_from_April_2019.pdf.
These bands range from £1,500 to £27,000 and set the maximum price that the government will contribute towards the training and assessment for an individual apprenticeship.
The funding band upper limit of £27,000 is the maximum amount of government funds that levy-paying employers can draw down from their apprenticeship service accounts to put towards the cost of an individual apprenticeship.
For non-levy-paying employers, at least 95% of the apprenticeship training and assessment costs will be paid for by the government, up to the agreed funding band limit.
We know that some employers will wish to use specific delivery models or provide additional training to their apprentices, which goes beyond what is set out in the standard. Employers are free to agree a price above the funding band upper limit but must pay for any additional costs above this.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the future financial sustainability of the apprenticeship levy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anne Milton
The apprenticeship levy is collected by HM Revenue and Customs from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million.
Separately, HM Treasury have set the Department for Education a budget for apprenticeships in England for the current Spending Review period (to 2019-20). This budget is distinct from the levy and is not dependent on receipts from the levy. This budget is used to fund new apprenticeship starts for both levy and non-levy paying employers and must also cover the ongoing costs of apprentices that are already in training.
In 2019-20 funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is over £2.5 billion, double what was spent in 2010-11.
Currently, we expect to remain within budget in this spending review period to the end of the 2019-20 financial year. A detailed breakdown of spending for 2018-19 will be published in the Education and Skills Funding Agency Annual Report and Accounts.
The level of funding for the apprenticeship programme beyond 2019-20 will be determined by the forthcoming Spending Review.