Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase investment in skills training to meet the needs of more 150,000 additional students seeking higher education by 2030 in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is important that the department has a sustainable higher education (HE) funding system that responds to the needs of the economy and that is fair to students and to taxpayers. The government keeps the HE funding system under continuous review to ensure that this remains the case, and to provide many different opportunities for learners to acquire vital skills.
The government is committed to creating a world-leading skills system, backed with an additional investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen HE and further education (FE). This includes increasing opportunities for people to develop higher technical skills through T Levels, Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps, or Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). From 2025, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will transform access to FE and HE, offering all adults the equivalent of four years’ worth of student loans to use flexibly on quality education training over their lifetime.
Through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), the department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period to the 2024/25 financial year to support high-quality teaching and facilities, the majority of which goes to supporting the provision of courses in high-cost subjects including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade. The recurrent SPG budget is £1,456 million for the 2024/25 financial year. This includes an £18 million increase in support for strategically important high-cost subjects.
The department is also providing £40 million over two years through the SPG to support degree apprenticeship providers to expand and help more people access this provision. The department has seen year-on-year growth in degree level apprenticeships (Level 6 and 7) with almost 230,000 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. The government has increased investment in the apprenticeships system in England to over £2.7 billion this financial year, to support employers of all sizes access high-quality apprenticeships at all levels.
The department’s Higher Technical Education reforms are growing skills at Level 4 and 5. The department has introduced new HTQs, which will increase the prestige and uptake of level 4 and 5 qualifications. To date, 172 qualifications have been approved as HTQs across seven occupational routes and are being taught at FE Colleges, Institutes of Technology, Universities, and Independent Training Providers. The department has provided up to £115 million in funding to providers to help grow provision across the country, on top of up to £300 million to create a network of 21 Institutes of Technology.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the apprenticeship levy and to grant firms more flexibility to use funds from the levy to skill up their workforce.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training, both for career starters as well as those looking to upskill or retrain.
The success of the levy is enabling the department to invest £2.7 billion in apprenticeships in England in the 2024/25 financial year, and means that 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent over the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. It is important that this funding remains protected to support apprenticeships. The government has no current plans to allow employers to spend the funds available to them on non-apprenticeships training. Allowing employers to use 50% of funds for non-apprenticeship training could create an additional cost of up to £1.5 billion a year. Without additional investment this could reduce apprenticeship starts to 140,000 a year, which would represent an almost 60% decrease on the 2022/23 academic year.
This month the department increased the proportion of the funds that levy-paying employers can transfer from 25% to 50%. This gives levy-paying employers even greater flexibility in how they use the funds available to them while also supporting more apprenticeships in other businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities.
Employers can choose from almost 700 high-quality apprenticeships and have the option of using flexible training models, such as flexi-job apprenticeships and accelerated apprenticeships. Employers can also access other government-funded skills programmes, including T Levels and Skills Bootcamps.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the apprenticeship system in increasing the number of high quality apprenticeship starts.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
High-quality apprenticeships reach nearly 700 occupations and deliver for individuals and businesses, with apprenticeship starts up 2% so far this year.
Over 80% of employers are satisfied with their apprenticeships and 92% of apprentices that achieve go into sustained employment.
The department is injecting an additional £60 million this year to support even more apprenticeships, including for young people and small and medium-sized enterprises, and £50 million over two years to boost starts in growth sectors like engineering and manufacturing.
The department has also increased the apprentice minimum wage by 21% to £6.40 per hour which will benefit an estimated 40,000 apprentices.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many level 7 apprenticeship starts there have been in small and medium sized businesses in each of the last five years.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The most recent statistics on apprenticeship starts by business size relate to the 2020/21 academic year and are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-in-england-by-industry-characteristics.
The following table shows the number of apprenticeship starts at Level 6 and above by business size in the last five academic years for which data is available. Apprenticeships at Level 6 and 7 are not split out within published data so the figures are a combined total.
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
Small (0-49 employees) | 240 | 1,430 | 2,880 | 3,870 | 5,540 |
Medium (50-249 employees) | 80 | 850 | 1,550 | 1,850 | 2,390 |
Data for 2021/22 will be published in July 2024.
Apprenticeship starts are defined as the count of apprenticeship programmes that begin in an academic year, showing the take-up of programmes. An apprentice is counted for each apprenticeship they start at a provider.
More details on the methodology can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/apprenticeships-in-england-by-industry-characteristics-methodology#content-section-4-content-1.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools and colleges to adapt their curriculum offering following the withdrawal of the WJEC Level 3 qualification in criminology (a) where the qualification was a significant component of vocational education programmes and (b) generally.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The intentions of the reforms to qualifications at Level 3 and below are to streamline the qualifications landscape, simplify choices for students, and only fund qualifications that are high-quality and lead to good progression outcomes. By ensuring that approved qualifications meet new, more rigorous criteria, young people can be confident that they will be able to progress to university and higher technical education and directly into apprenticeships and skilled employment.
Qualification reform puts A levels and T Levels at the heart of study programmes. Qualifications reforms are being undertaken in cycles.
Criminology qualifications will be considered in cycle 2 of the qualification’s reforms. An announcement, on which qualifications will be approved and which will see funding removed, will be made in 2025 and will be implemented from 1 August 2026. For students interested in the police, prison service, and other uniformed or emergency services, large applied general qualifications in uniformed protective services will remain funded until 2026. After this, qualifications in these subjects will either be approved as small alternative academic qualifications (AAQs), or technical qualifications mapped against relevant Level 3 occupational standards. Criminology is contained in the sector subject area of sociology and social policy. This sector subject area also contains a sociology A level which will serve students wishing to progress to higher education.
Students will have the option to choose A levels or a mixed study programme. A student aspiring to be a police constable for example, could study a small AAQ alongside appropriate A levels such as law, physical education, or sociology. Alternatively, they can study a relevant technical occupational entry qualification, which will be based on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education approved occupational standards. These have been designed by employers to give the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed for the occupations to which they pertain. Consequently, criminology has not been listed as an area where the department would accept a small AAQ.
Over the last six months the department has invited all providers to attend one of ten in-person events in five cities across England to support them in understanding the details and timeline for reform and to provide information to help planning and designing their curriculum offer. The department has launched a set of web pages that provide colleges with the information they need. These web pages can be found here: https://support.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb/sections/16829562632850-Qualifications-Review.
The department will continue to support schools and colleges through online information, future guides and events as the dates where the new qualifications landscape is introduced move closer.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage take up of degree-level apprenticeships.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Degree-level apprenticeships (Levels 6 and 7) provide people with high-quality training and are important in supporting productivity, social mobility and widening participation in higher education and employment. There are now over 170 degree-level apprenticeships available in exciting occupations such as Doctor and Nuclear Scientist. More broadly, the department has now developed nearly 700 high-quality apprenticeship standards with employers, so today nearly 70% of occupations are available via an apprenticeship.
The department has seen year-on-year growth of degree-level apprenticeships, with 229,970 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. The department want to further accelerate the growth of degree level apprenticeships and are providing an additional £40 million over two financial years to support providers expand their offers, improving access to young people and disadvantaged groups. The department has also teamed up with UCAS so that students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their service, putting apprenticeships on an equal footing with traditional academic routes, and continuing outreach work in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help increase the number of people that are accredited to retrofit residential housing stock.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
To build retrofit workforce capacity, the government has invested nearly £29m since 2021 to deliver around 34,000 retrofit training opportunities. This includes an £8.85m Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition to deliver 8,000 insulation installation and retrofit professional qualifications, and a £5m Heat Training Grant to support 10,000 training opportunities relevant to heat pumps and heat networks up to 2025. The government launched a new Low Carbon Heating Technician apprenticeship in Autumn 2023 and is working with industry to develop occupational standards for insulation and building treatments to create new apprenticeships and T Levels for retrofit work.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) educational and (b) vocational training opportunities are not reduced in prisons; and whether he plans to use those training opportunities to help reduce prison overcrowding.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Education is key for reducing reoffending and research indicates that prison education reduces reoffending by 9 percentage points. In September 2023, we set out our plans to deliver an improved Prison Education Service that will support more prisoners to improve their literacy and numeracy and increase the number of prison leavers employed on release.
Over the past 12 months we have seen a sustained delivery in the number vocational courses undertaken by prisoners following increases to 95,000. To ensure the right education and vocational training opportunities are available across prisons we have:
I am pleased to say that we have seen positive outcomes in employment in support of our work to make best use of prison capacity. The proportion of prison leavers in employment six months after release has more than doubled in the two years to March 2023, from 14% to over 30%and between 2011/12 and 2021/22, the overall proven reoffending rate has decreased from 31.3% to 25.2%.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional Strategic Priorities Grant recurrent funding was allocated to the Office for Students between financial years (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2024-25.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) is funding supplied by the government on an annual basis to support teaching and students in higher education (HE), which includes funding for subjects that are expensive to deliver, such as science and engineering, students at risk of discontinuing their studies, and world-leading specialist providers. The department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to support high quality teaching and facilities, including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade.
In the 2022/23 financial year, the total recurrent SPG funding was £1,397 million. This was increased to £1,454 million for the 2023/24 financial year. The department has recently provided a budget of £1,456 million in recurrent SPG for the 2024/25 financial year.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve access to artificial intelligence training.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to creating a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality and fit for the future.
The department will continue its work to ensure that the education system is able to adapt to deliver upskilling and to provide the skills that learners need for the workplaces of the future, including jobs that will be impacted by, or require the use of, artificial intelligence (AI).
World class T Levels are boosting access to high-quality technical education for thousands of young people and creating a skilled workforce for the future. 18 T Levels are available in a range of in-demand subject areas, including T Levels in digital subjects, which have been designed by employers and will help to equip students with the skills and knowledge required for great careers in the digital industry.
Employers have designed over 30 high-quality apprenticeships in digital occupations, including Level 7 Artificial Intelligence Data Specialist, which will provide cutting edge skills in AI. Since it was introduced in May 2020, starts in this standard have grown from 100 in the 2020/21 academic year to 350 in the 2022/23 academic year.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) are revising the Level 7 Artificial Intelligence Data Specialist standard this year to ensure it meets employers’ needs. They have also developed Level 5 in Data Engineering and are currently developing Level 6 Machine Learning Engineer. These standards include high levels of content regarding the application and use of AI.
IfATE are also hosting workshops with a range of stakeholders to discuss the impact of AI on skills requirement across the economy and will be updating the Digital Skills and Characteristics Framework with AI-related content when it is revised next year. This will ensure all employers are thinking about the use and impact of AI when developing or revising occupational standards.
Skills Bootcamps are delivering skills training for the digital sector in 2024/25 in each English region. There are also online Skills Bootcamps in AI Marketing and Content Creation and AI and Machine Learning.
Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) provide the skills needed for a range of specialist digital occupations, such as cyber security technologist and software developer. There are 56 digital HTQs currently approved for teaching and a further ten approved for teaching from September 2024. HTQs provide a range of opportunities and pathways to build up the skills needed for AI-related roles.
In higher education, the department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver new postgraduate AI and data science conversion courses to boost skills and diversity in AI jobs. The government is also investing £117 million in doctoral training for AI researchers.
In 2023, the department’s Unit for Future Skills (UFS) developed a Science and Technology Jobs and Skills Dashboard to understand the supply and demand of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills to develop critical technologies like AI and quantum. This data will support improved access to relevant training.
The UFS has also undertaken analysis which attempts to quantify the impact of AI on the UK job market. It shows the occupations, sectors and geographic areas expected to be most affected by AI and large language models, as well as the training routes that typically lead to these highly affected jobs.
Digital and computing skills will play an important role for individuals developing and using AI in the future workforce. The department is harnessing government and external expertise through the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce to increase the number of people taking digital and computing qualifications and attract a diverse range of individuals into digital jobs.