Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress has been made on the development of the digital apprentice service.

The digital apprenticeship service offers employers, training providers and individuals a range of tools to engage with apprenticeships online. We continue to develop the service and introduce new features. In August 2016, we gave providers a means to post vacancies on the ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ site (https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship). In August 2016, we also released an easy tool to help employers to estimate their apprenticeship funding (https://estimate-my-apprenticeship-funding.sfa.bis.gov.uk). In October, a new service will go live to help employers find and compare training providers and apprenticeships. The employer digital account is being built in readiness for the apprenticeship levy in April 2017 and is currently being tested in a closed trial involving 100 employers and 50 providers.

We use a range of channels to communicate with employers and providers. These include the National Apprenticeship Service and the Skills Funding Agency’s (SFA’s) network of account managers. There are weekly and monthly SFA updates that give employers and providers information about the full range of changes that the digital apprenticeship service will bring. Employers and providers can also keep in touch through the SFA digital blog, at: https://sfadigital.blog.gov.uk. We continue to share information with employers and providers through regular events across England.