Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will set a target for apprenticeship completion rates by the end of this Parliament.

Apprenticeship completions are monitored closely by the Skills Funding Agency. There are minimum levels of performance for individual providers.

We have already taken action to increase the quality of apprenticeships; including introducing a minimum duration and ensuring that all apprenticeships are real jobs. We are continuing to go further by giving employers the opportunity to design rigorous new apprenticeships with end point assessments and by establishing the Institute for Apprenticeships.

We will continue to focus on quality as much as on quantity, but do not intend to set a separate target for apprenticeship completion rates.