Apprentices: Coronavirus

(asked on 13th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to introduce flexibility in the use of Apprenticeship Levy funds to help mitigate the effects of the covid-19 outbreak on current and potential construction apprentices.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 21st July 2020

The apprenticeship levy is an important part of our apprenticeship reforms, supporting employers of all sizes to make a long-term, sustainable investment in training. We recognise that employers at the moment face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices so we have announced a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. Details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury. We will also ensure that there is sufficient funding to support small businesses wanting to take on an apprentice this year.

In light of the challenges presented by COVID-19, we have introduced a range of flexibilities so that apprentices and employers can continue with their apprenticeships. These include encouraging remote learning, as well as allowing furloughed apprentices to continue their apprenticeships and undertake end point assessments.

Employers are at the heart of our reforms to apprenticeships, designing high-quality standards that deliver the skills that they need, and allowing them to spend the levy on the apprenticeships training that matters for them. Employers in the construction sector have developed 86 standards which are approved for delivery. These include Groundworker at level 2 and Building Services Design Technician at level 3. A further 12 are in development.

We are working with the construction sector to encourage the take up of apprenticeships to ensure businesses can restart and recover as quickly as possible.

We remain committed to looking at how to improve the working of the apprenticeship levy, to support large and small employers in meeting the long-term skills needs of the economy.

Reticulating Splines