Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase spending on job support and skills training for jobs at the highest risk of redundancy due to automation.

o The department (DWP) has a comprehensive package of support through the Plan for Jobs, with new funding to ensure more people will get tailored support to help them find work. This will include:

• support from Jobcentre Plus Work Coaches
• the recently launched Kickstart Scheme - a £2 billion fund which will create paid, quality 6-month work placements for over 250,000 young people on Universal Credit, deemed to be at risk of long term unemployment
• the new DWP Youth Offer and
• the recently announced Restart programme. The government is investing £2.9 billion in the Restart programme over 3 years. Restart will provide intensive and tailored support to over a million people who have been unemployed for over 12 months in England and Wales to help them find work.

o We recognise that that automation may result in job losses in some sectors, but we also expect jobs to be created in other sectors, to allow unemployed people to pivot into priority sectors, for example in construction, and social care.

o In the ‘Plan for Jobs’, the Chancellor announced an extra 32,000 Sector-based Work Academy Programme participant starts in 2020/21, providing £17 million for the Department for Education to triple the number of associated vocational training placements. DWP’s Secretary of State also pledged to increase further the number of people taking part in 2021/22. The Sector-based Work Academy Programme offers training, work experience and a guaranteed job interview to those ready to start a job. This is alongside the expansion of support for traineeships in England and for apprenticeships, which enable people to work while having a structured training programme.