Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people in (a) full- and (b) part-time employment have used the Lifetime Skills Guarantee in each year since it was introduced.

The government publishes Further Education and Skills statistics at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-and-skills. Data regarding whether employment is full or part time is not routinely available.

Two key elements of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee were Skills Bootcamps and Free Courses for Jobs.

In March 2023 the department published an independent evaluation of Skills Bootcamps provision that was delivered in the 2021/22 financial year, that set out the employment status of learners. The evaluation is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-skills-bootcamps-wave-2-implementation-report. It showed that for this year of provision:

• Two fifths of applicants (39%) and starts (37%) were in full-time employment prior to applying for, or starting, their Skills Bootcamp.
• Nearly one in six applicants and starts (both 14%) were in part-time employment prior to applying for, or starting, their Skills Bootcamp.

The department is committed to publishing more data and evaluation reports for subsequent years of Skills Bootcamps provision, with ‘starts’ data for the 20222/23 financial year planned for publication by the end of the year.

The department also publishes data on the employment status of those completing Free Courses for Jobs but that is not broken down by whether someone is working full or part time: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/4112d2de-145b-4708-1ab9-08dbb99e3fd8.