Apprentices: Manufacturing Industries

(asked on 2nd September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to safeguard manufacturing apprenticeship schemes.


Answered by
Baroness Berridge Portrait
Baroness Berridge
This question was answered on 16th September 2020

Through our ‘Plan for Jobs’ a total of £1.6 billion is to be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training, and apprenticeships, with a particular focus on young people.

We recognise that employers, at the moment, face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices and so to help businesses offer new apprenticeships, they will be able to claim £1,500 for every apprentice they hire as a new employee from 1 August 2020 until 31 January 2021- rising to £2,000 if they hire a new apprentice under the age of 25. We will also ensure that there is sufficient funding to support small businesses wanting to take on an apprentice this year.

This new payment means it is a great time for employers in all sectors to offer new apprenticeship opportunities. Employers in the engineering and manufacturing sector have designed over 130 high-quality apprenticeship standards to deliver the skills that they need to recover and grow following the COVID-19 outbreak.

During the outbreak, we introduced flexibilities to support apprentices and employers to continue with, and complete, their programmes and we encouraged providers and assessment organisations to deliver training and assessments flexibly, including remotely, to enable this.

We are talking to employers, sector organisations and providers across a range of sectors, including manufacturing, to understand the opportunities and challenges they face in offering apprenticeships. In August we held a roundtable with the Association of Colleges and 10 colleges with a high volume of delivery to the sector.

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