Apprentices: Transport

(asked on 10th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to encourage employers to take on apprentices in the transport sector.


Answered by
Alex Burghart Portrait
Alex Burghart
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 24th February 2022

Employers in the transport and logistics sector have so far developed 37 high quality apprenticeships in occupations such as air traffic controller and train driver. There were 9,095 starts in this sector in the 2020/21 academic year, with a further 3,125 starts so far in the first quarter of the 2021/22 academic year.

To support apprenticeships in all sectors, the department is increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024-25 financial year. The department is also encouraging the use of more flexible training models, such as front-loaded and accelerated training and flexi-job apprenticeships to ensure apprentices are ready to work on-site and can benefit from high-quality long-term training that an apprenticeship provides.

To support the increased uptake of high-quality apprenticeships in the haulage sector, last August we launched a new version of the Large Goods Vehicle Driver apprenticeship. The department has increased funding for this apprenticeship from £5,000 to £7,000 to support providers delivering this standard. The department has also supported the industry to develop a new Urban Delivery Driver apprenticeship, which enables apprentices to obtain a Cat C licence alongside a range of driver skills.

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