Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what careers guidance is offered to apprentices employed in the House of Commons who have completed apprenticeships.

The Learning and Development team offer apprentices support with all their training throughout their apprenticeships, including matching the apprentices with a team buddy who can support them during their apprenticeship. We look to match internal training available to modules of their apprenticeship, so they can take part in additional sessions to enrich the apprenticeship learning. We have also run mock interviews to prepare them for their next career steps.

All apprentices are offered career coaching with one of the House’s coaches. Part of their coaching includes helping them to prepare for applying for jobs. They are also offered the opportunity to participate in mock interviews, and ‘how to get that job’ training sessions.

In 2018, The House ran a joint tender with the House of Lords and Parliamentary Digital Service to procure new apprenticeship training providers. These appointed providers were tested extensively to ensure their provision was of the highest quality. We monitor our providers and provide regular feedback informally as well as at formal quarterly feedback meetings. We take the quality of the training for apprenticeship very seriously and our appointed providers are very experienced in apprenticeship delivery, prior to the introduction of the Levy and since then.

Since the appointment of new training providers in September 2018, the House of Commons has expanded its offering of two apprenticeship courses to fourteen, with further plans to extend the offering across more levels and specialisms over the course of 2019.