Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the quality of training provided through the apprenticeship levy.

Quality is at the heart of our apprenticeships reforms. Employers are designing new high quality apprenticeship standards providing the valuable skills they need, overseen from 1 April by the new Institute for Apprenticeships. Rigorous end-point assessments and grading will raise the quality of apprenticeships giving employers confidence that apprentices are ‘job-ready’ because they have to demonstrate full occupational competence in order to pass.

The Apprenticeships Levy comes into effect on 6 April 2017. We are putting control of funding firmly in the hands of employers, so they can invest in quality training.

The Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers was published on 14 March 2017. Only providers listed on the Register are approved to deliver apprenticeship training to employers from May 2017 and all will be subject to enhanced monitoring and assurance.