Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote technical and vocational education and training in the East Midlands.

Since the publication of the Wolf Review in 2011, the department has implemented an extensive programme of reforms to strengthen technical and applied qualifications. This includes taking forward the recommendations from Lord Sainsbury’s panel on technical education (TE), which will create a world-class technical and vocational education system, offering a real choice of high-quality training.

Our apprenticeships marketing campaign, Fire It Up, aims to change the way people think about apprenticeships, by showing them as an aspirational choice for those with energy and passion and encouraging everyone to consider them. In addition, the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge project is a free service provided through the Department for Education, and works with schools to ensure that teachers have the knowledge, support and resources to enable them to promote apprenticeships to their students.

Alongside apprenticeships, new T levels will raise the prestige of TE and provide students with a high-quality, technical alternative to A levels. We are working closely with the providers selected to deliver T levels in 2020 (including Derby College) to ensure they are ready for first teaching, and have provided them with marketing materials which can be adapted for local use. A communications campaign will launch later this year to raise awareness of T levels, where they can lead and how they fit in with other post-16 choices.

We have announced the first 12 Institutes of Technology (IoTs) that will be set up across the country to deliver higher TE and training with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. Backed by £170 million of government funding for investing in state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, one of the new IoTs is led by the University of Lincoln in partnership with local further education colleges and employers.