Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how many apprenticeships he expects there to be in Wales in each of the next five years.

Skills policy is a devolved matter in Wales, and therefore it is up to the Welsh Government to decide what proportion of its Block Grant is allocated to funding apprenticeships and skills policy.

The UK Government is committed to creating 3 million apprenticeships across the UK by the end of this parliament, and to support and encourage businesses to take on apprenticeships has announced the apprenticeship levy. There has been a long standing commitment that Wales will get its fair share from this levy. Last month HM Treasury announced that £128m will be allocated to Wales in the first year alone.

The Welsh Government can now choose whether to implement similar arrangements to England – where the apprenticeship budget is forecast to more than double in cash terms between 2010-11 and 2019-20, and employers in England can claim back their levy simply by investing in apprenticeship training, or put in place their own alternative arrangements to help the number of apprenticeships in Wales grow over the next five years.