Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to ensure that the number of apprenticeships do not decline as a result of the UK leaving the EU.

Our apprenticeship reforms have strengthened the quality of apprenticeships, so that employers can continue to look to them as a means of meeting their skills needs in the future.

New apprenticeship standards across all levels are being designed by employers, creating higher quality training that will lead to a more skilled and productive economy. As an employer-led programme, employers choose the type and level of training that they need to meet their skills needs. There were 163,700 starts on apprenticeship standards in 2017/18, which is more than 6 times higher than the number of starts in 2016/17. This shows that employers are moving quickly to this new higher quality offer.

Our reforms are making apprenticeships longer and better, with more off-the job training and appropriate assessment at the end. These changes are making sure that today’s apprenticeships reflect what businesses want and need.