Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had discussions with the Oxford-Cambridge Partnership on ensuring that business needs are met through the delivery of (a) apprenticeships and (b) technical skills by further education institutions.

The department, through Skills England, is actively engaged in the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor. This engagement is supported by local skills improvement plans (LSIPs), which cover all the areas within the Oxford-Cambridge corridor. LSIPs are overseen by Skills England, helping to ensure all parties play their part.

Skills England works closely with employer representative bodies who develop LSIPs to ensure that local technical skills priorities support employers, empower learners and enable regions to respond to future workforce needs.

Employers have consistently engaged with and contributed to the development of LSIPs to articulate skills needs, outline issues faced and establish solutions to tackle these.