Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robert Halfon and Alun Cairns

Monday 12th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon]

Just to be clear on BTECs, many BTECs will remain and people will be able to do them with A-levels. We are getting rid of BTECs that either have low outcomes, significantly overlap with the T-level, or have very low uptake. We have also introduced the T-level transition year so that people who want to prepare for T-levels are able to do so.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

T7. Few Members have done more to support and drive up the standards of apprenticeships than my right hon. Friend, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education. The hospitality sector is keen to continue to work with him and the Department in order to bring people into apprenticeships and to drive up the standards further. People in the sector believe that they can achieve more with some elements of flexibility and by continually evolving the policy. Is my right hon. Friend prepared to engage with the sector in order to see how we can work with it?

[Robert Halfon]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his kind remarks. We have already introduced flexibilities with the apprenticeship levy. As I know how deeply concerned he is about the hospitality industry, I can tell him that I have visited Greene King and seen how brilliantly it uses the levy to employ hundreds of apprentices. Of course, where we can, we will work to ensure that this carries on across the hospitality industry, which he so ably represents.

Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill

Debate between Robert Halfon and Alun Cairns

2nd reading
Monday 27th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon]

My right hon. Friend, who made a brilliant speech, is absolutely right. We will also be resourcing this in the way that my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Siobhan Baillie) wanted with our extra spending on skills and further education colleges. I also thank her for her important speech.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way? [Interruption.]

[Robert Halfon]

I just want to answer some other questions that the Labour spokesman asked first.

To be clear, as part of the pathway towards the LLE, the Government will stimulate the provision of high-quality technical education at levels 4 and 5 through the HE short-course trial that he talked about, with 22 providers. [Interruption.]

[Robert Halfon]

We will keep the student finance system under review to ensure it is delivering value for money both for students and the taxpayer. The forecast costs for the LLE, which the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington asked about, will be outlined in a future spending review. He also asked about the QAA. It released a public statement in July 2022 requesting to step down from its position as the designated quality body. We are currently consulting on the de-designation of the QAA as required by the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. That consultation closes on 3 March.

[Alun Cairns]

I am hugely grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way. Clearly, this is a devolved area of policy in the nations of the UK, but what discussions has he had with the devolved Administrations? Students from all parts of the UK clearly cross borders quite frequently, and there will be implications—not only for funding, but for a whole range of issues affecting those impacted by this Bill.

[Robert Halfon]

My right hon. Friend makes an important point. We will be able to explain further once the consultation paper has been published, before Report.