Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department plans to allocate for the recruitment of additional specialist teachers for T Levels in Colleges.

We are investing up to £20 million over the two years to March 2020 to support providers as they prepare for the introduction of T levels. This includes a new, bespoke programme of professional development to help improve the knowledge and skills of those teaching T levels, as well as our new £5 million Taking Teaching Further programme. This programme will support up to 150 industry professionals to train to teach in the further education (FE) sector.

Although FE institutions are private sector organisations responsible for their own workforce planning, we are working closely with providers, including the first T level providers, to understand how best we can support the effective recruitment, retention and development of the teachers and leaders that the sector needs to secure the best possible outcomes for learners. We will be looking carefully at these issues in the forthcoming Spending Review.