Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the prevalence of large employers offering inclusive blended work experience programmes, both in-person and virtual, for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

We currently do not collect data on the number of T Level industry placements delivered, or committed to, by individual employers. Instead, this information is held by education providers, who are responsible for securing industry placements for their T Level students and, therefore, we are unable to report on the number of large employers currently offering or planning on offering industry placements. However, as part of our ongoing engagement with employers on T Levels, we are encouraging employers of all sizes, including large employers, to offer industry placements.

Traineeships provide young people from all backgrounds with an opportunity to gain valuable work experience and skills needed to start a successful career in a variety of industries.

Through The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC), we continue to support schools and colleges to provide young people with access to meaningful experiences of the workplace.

We know that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Careers Leaders in schools,colleges and employers responded creatively to the challenges of providing experiences of the workplace, adapting their careers programmes to provide virtual encounters with employers. Many employers are now taking a blended approach to providing workplace experiences..

The CEC have published a range of key resources to support Careers Leaders to develop their careers programmes. This includes guidance around how to meet Gatsby Benchmark 6 (experiences of the workplace) more meaningfully, resources from the ‘My Week of Work’ event, and links to virtual tours with employers and work experience programmes.

The CEC has also worked in partnership with CareerMap and Engineering UK to develop a new resource for employers around virtual work experience and continue to increase opportunities for young people to engage with employers.

Over 300 ‘Cornerstone’ employers who represent a range of business sizes and sectors, including Rolls Royce and BAE Systems, are working with Careers Hubs to bring together business effort and engagement with local schools and colleges. 3,750 Enterprise Advisers are also working with schools and colleges to develop their employer engagement plans.