Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to place greater emphasis on the development of work-related skills in schools and colleges.

The department’s reforms will prepare children for the modern world, ensuring every pupil develops essential knowledge and skills for life, work and innovation. We will strengthen the curriculum by embedding critical media literacy and sustainability and improving financial education. A refreshed computing curriculum will build early digital confidence, including core learning on artificial intelligence, and integrate digital skills across subjects.

Colleges already deliver a wide range of technical or vocational provision aimed at equipping students with the skills they need for work or higher study, such as T Levels, based on employer-designed standards with a 45-day industry placement.

Reforms set out in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper to develop the skilled workforce our economy needs include new V Levels, expansion of T Levels; and clearer Level 2 routes through Occupational and Further Study Pathways.

We are also strengthening careers advice and guidance in schools, driven by updated Gatsby Benchmarks and our commitment to deliver at least two weeks’ worth of work experience for all pupils.