Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that independent training providers are not unfairly disadvantaged when competing with further education colleges in the delivery of apprenticeships.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has launched the application process for a new register for delivery of apprenticeships from 1 May 2017 – the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers. The register will be a list of organisations that have demonstrated their capability to deliver apprenticeship training, thereby encouraging diversity and competition in the provider market. Its application process has been developed in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which require transparency and equal treatment of applicants. The evaluation criteria that test capability to deliver and quality of apprenticeship training do not differentiate between the types of organisation applying.

From 1 May 2017, employers who will use a digital account to pay for their apprenticeship training will be able to choose any provider from the register to deliver their apprenticeship training.