Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to provide funding for creative skills education.

The government announced almost £400 million of funding in 2016-20 for a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes that are designed to improve access for all children. This includes £300 million for music education hubs, £58 million in 2016-18 for the Music and Dance Scheme, which allows exceptionally talented children to attend specialist music and dance institutions. £27 million has been provided for Dance and Drama Awards which supports students aged 16-23 to access specialist dance and drama provision at 18 institutions. And £8 million has been offered in 2016-18 for cultural education programmes including Saturday Art and Design Clubs, the National Youth Dance Company and the BFI’s Film Academy programme.

Level 2 and 3 creative skill qualifications are currently provided by a range of 16 to 19-year-old providers and can be included in study programmes. As long as these programmes comply with the guidelines they will attract funding under 16 to 19-year-old funding rules. The government has maintained funding for the Adult Education Budget (AEB), which is supporting adult skills participation with £1.5 billion this year. The principal purpose of the AEB is to engage adults and provide the skills and learning they need to equip them for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. It will enable more tailored programmes of learning to be made available which do not need to include a qualification.

As recommended by the Independent Panel on Technical Education, we have created a framework of 15 occupational routes that encompass all employment-based and college-based training. Amongst these routes will include the new T-level qualifications. The implementation of these routes will be phased and the Creative and Design route will be rolled out in September 2022. Once these routes are fully rolled out there will be over £500 million additional funding for the delivery of all T-levels to 16 to 19-year olds per year.

Employers can now develop new apprenticeships across a range of sectors to meet their skills needs, and can submit proposals for new apprenticeships directly to the Institute for Apprenticeships. There are already a range of apprenticeships available in the Creative sector including live event rigger, live event technician, assistant technical director for visual effects and outside broadcasting engineer. Many more are in development including journalist, ceramicist and puppet maker.