Apprentices: Coronavirus

(asked on 9th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department plans to provide to people on an apprenticeship whose placements have been delayed as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 17th June 2021

During the COVID-19 outbeak, we have seen employers continuing to offer new apprenticeship opportunities and recruit apprentices to help meet their skills needs.

We recognise that COVID-19 restrictions have caused disruption to training and assessment. We have worked closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to introduce flexibility to employers, training providers and end-point assessment organisations to ensure that apprentices, including furloughed apprentices, can safely continue with, and complete, their programmes.

Apprenticeships training can be delivered flexibly. During the COVID-19 outbreak, we have encouraged providers to deliver training remotely where possible and many providers have developed additional training materials and/or alternative mechanisms for delivery in response to COVID-19. As national restrictions have been relaxed by the government, barriers to training and assessment have now largely been removed.

We would encourage employers and providers to continue to work together to judge the appropriate balance of on-site and remote training and assessment to ensure that the apprentice receives a high-quality experience.

To help employers recruit the right people now, and not delay taking on apprentices, we are offering employers a higher incentive payment of £3,000 when they take on an apprentice as a new recruit until September 2021. Employers have submitted over 52,000 claims for the incentive payments for new apprentices with planned start dates between August 2020 and March 2021.

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