Department for Transport: Apprentices
(asked on 9th May 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what levels of apprenticeships are offered by his Department; and how many apprenticeship starts there were at each level in each of the last three years.
This response covers the Department for Transport – comprising the central Department and the four Executive Agencies.
We only hold the requested data for the last two financial years. Apprenticeship starts and levels are as follows:
| Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 and Higher |
April 2016 – March 2017 | 65 | 61 | 122 |
April 2017 – March 2018 | 38 | 71 | 16 |
This has been a transitional year for apprenticeships with the release of new apprenticeships standards ready for delivery, the implementation of the new apprenticeship funding regulations and the availability of the new Civil Service Learning Apprenticeship contract.
For the Department, the delay in the availability of new professional apprenticeships standards coupled with the delayed availability of the new Civil Service Learning apprenticeships contract made strategic workforce planning difficult this year. This was further impeded by changes to funding processes which resulted in projected starts for 2017/18 not materialising until after the end of the 2017/18 target period.
In addition, a decision by DVLA to refresh its workforce strategy led to a reduction of its internal apprenticeship start target (as based in Wales this did not affect the Department’s apprenticeship start target set by Cabinet Office).
Looking forward, several leadership and management apprenticeship cohorts are now in place across the Department, with a Department wide HR apprenticeship cohort planned to start in June. Should these cohorts prove successful, the department will look to embed these apprenticeships in future development programmes. The quality of apprenticeship delivery has been an issue but supplier management has been a key focus of the Department’s recent activity. Now that the wider Civil Service Learning apprenticeship provision is available, work is underway to further utilise apprenticeships to build capability and develop talent pipelines within the professions.