Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 44997, in what ways the Government is (a) encouraging a wider range of young people into apprenticeships and (b) increasing the proportion of BAME apprenticeship starts by 20 per cent by 2020.

We are committed to ensuring that apprenticeships are as accessible as possible to all people from all backgrounds.

We are undertaking a range of activities to increase the awareness amongst young people of the available apprenticeship options, including the four-year Get In Go Far campaign that launched in May 2016. The campaign aims to influence public perceptions, awareness and attitudes towards apprenticeships as a route into a successful career, helping young people aged 14-24 to get the skills they need, and encouraging more young people to apply and more employers to offer apprenticeship opportunities.

As part of reforms to the routes from compulsory school to employment, we set out new professional and technical routes, which will all lead to employment or degree-level study. This aims to ensure that young people have the education and skills to get into higher paid, long-term employment, including apprenticeships.

We are increasing numbers of traineeships to further support young people, including those from areas of disadvantage, into apprenticeships and further work. Traineeships show good representation for both BAME and LDD groups (22.6% and 19.7% respectively).

We remain committed to increasing the proportion of apprenticeships starts from people from BAME communities and have already put in place measures to support this, including: encouraging more people from BAME communities to apply for apprenticeships through communications and marketing; providing BAME role models in the Get in Go Far campaign; helping BAME apprenticeship applicants to have better rates of success in applications; and establishing a network of employer diversity ‘champions’.

Recommendations from the LLD Taskforce led by Paul Maynard were accepted and published on 11 July, and will benefit a broader group of disabled apprentices. Work has begun on its implementation.