Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeships in the digital, culture, media and sport sectors to help support the Government’s agenda of levelling up across the UK.

We are committed to supporting more employers in all sectors, including digital, culture, media, and sport, to use apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need, and to supporting more people, from all backgrounds, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.

In August, we launched a new £7 million flexi-job apprenticeship fund to support the greater use of apprenticeships in sectors, such as the creative industries, where flexible working practices are commonplace, including short periods of project-based employment. Flexi-job apprenticeships will enable apprentices to move between different host employers in a given sector or region as they complete the training requirements for their apprenticeship.

In addition, we are making it easier for large employers to transfer levy funds to support new starts in small businesses or in a certain sector or region. On 13 September, we launched a new online service to allow levy paying employers to advertise funding pledges, enabling a much wider range of businesses to browse and apply for available funds. It is brilliant to see that employers have already begun to take advantage of this opportunity, including Amazon who have made a pledge on the new service of £50,000 to support apprenticeships in the creative industries.

We are also working closely with Screenskills who are piloting a flexi-job apprenticeship training model funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with the support of Netflix and Warner Bros. The pilot is funding 20 apprentices in Production Assistant and Production Accountant roles and aims to widen participation in the film sector.

To further help employers offer new apprenticeships, employers can claim £3,000 for each apprentice they take on as a new employee until 30 September, under the government’s Plan for Jobs.