Baroness Caine of Kentish Town

We are developing, with industry, sector Jobs Plans for all growth-driving sectors identified by the Industrial Strategy, as well as construction. These plans will build on the Industrial Strategy Sector Plans and provide a clear direction of travel for government and industry to develop the domestic workforce together. The first of these plans to be published was the Clean Energy Jobs plan.

Firms in the eight Industrial Strategy sectors receive a wide range of investment, including via a range of sector-targeted programmes and the Public Financial Institutions, such as the British Business Bank (including £4 billion of capital specifically for the Industrial Strategy sectors), UK Export Finance and the National Wealth Fund. They are also supported by wider public investment into other policy interventions, such as skills. As part of the government's investment in skills across this Parliament, in addition to £1.2 billion of additional investment in skills per year by 2028-29, we have committed to sector skills packages including £187 million for digital skills and artificial intelligence learning; £182 million for engineering skills and £182 million to boost the defence talent pipeline.

In the Creative Industries Sector Plan, published in June 2025, the government outlined our ambition to build a resilient, skilled workforce fit for the future. As part of this, we set out to develop a high quality and responsive education, skills and training offer, meeting the sector’s workforce requirements, and develop a long-term government and business partnership to support all stages of the skills pipeline. This includes delivering greater flexibility for employers and learners via the new growth and skills offer; working with industry to support sector training pathways through a DCMS and Skills England led Creative Sector Skills Forum; and delivering a refreshed UK-wide £9 million creative careers service.

To build on this, we are developing sector Jobs Plans with industry for all growth-driving sectors identified by the Industrial Strategy. This will be published later this year.

The appointment process is still to be determined, though we plan for the role to go to an external appointee, not a minister. We will work with industry to develop Terms of Reference.

The Freelance Champion will be a role appointed by DCMS which will give freelancers a voice within government. We envisage that the role will help represent the interests of creative freelancers in areas such as the development of the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Small Business Commissioner, the Fair Work Agency, and the Department for Business and Trade’s Small Business Growth Forum.

The department recognises the cultural and economic value of performing and creative arts courses. However, given the fiscal constraints, our approach is to prioritise funding for subjects with the highest delivery costs and where there is stronger evidence of current and future skills shortages.

Creative arts subjects already attract lower rates of funding than the science and technology subjects in price groups A and B, with Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) funding representing only a relatively small proportion of their overall funding when fees are taken into account. For 2025/26, the SPG funding rate for performing and creative arts courses was £130.54 per student full time equivalent. This is just over 1% of the total funding for these courses including tuition fees that are supported by subsidised student loans.

Performing and creative arts courses will, like other subjects, benefit from future inflationary increases to tuition fees.

The department does not hold data on the subjects offered by schools and colleges.

School and college data on the number of entries in each subject is published in the ‘Qualification and subject data’ found on the Compare school and college performance website, available on GOV.UK.

This includes schools and colleges which had entries in GCSE, A level and Level 3 film and media qualifications, their institution type and local authority.

The number of schools and colleges with entries in film and media subjects by region and institution type are provided in the tables below.

Number of schools and colleges with entries in GCSE film and media subjects:

Number of schools and colleges with entries in A level film and media subjects:

Number of schools and colleges with entries in all Level 3 qualifications in film and media subjects:

GCSE figures relate to entries in ‘Film Studies’ and ‘Media/Film/TV Studies’ GCSEs by pupils at the end of key stage 4. A level figures relate to entries in ‘Film Studies’ and ‘Media/Film/TV Studies’ A levels by students at the end of 16 to 19 study.

Level 3 qualifications include entries in ‘Film Studies’ and ‘Media/Film/TV Studies’ A levels, AS levels, and other Level 3 academic qualifications, and ‘Multimedia’ and “Film/Video/Television Production” Applied General and Tech Level qualifications by students at the end of 16 to 19 study. Each school and college are counted once only, regardless of whether they offer multiple courses.

Teaching began on the ‘Media, Broadcast and Production’ T Level pathway in September 2024. Provider level data will be published for the first time in spring 2027.

We recognise the cultural and economic value of media, journalism and publishing courses. However, given the fiscal constraints, our approach is to continue to prioritise funding for subjects with the highest delivery costs (and hence Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) funding) and where there is stronger evidence of current and future skills shortages.

Media, journalism and publishing were subjects that previously attracted lower rates of funding than the science and technology subjects in price groups A & B, with SPG funding representing only a relatively small proportion of their overall funding when fees are taken into account. For 2024/25, the SPG funding rate for these courses was £130.54 per student full time equivalent. This was just over 1% of the total funding for these courses including tuition fees (that are supported by subsidised student loans).

Media, journalism and publishing courses will, like other subjects, benefit from future inflationary increases to tuition fees.

The number of schools with entries in the two subjects requested are provided below. The department does not hold data on the subjects that institutions offer.

Number of schools with GCSE and A level entries in Film Studies and Media/Film/TV Studies in 2024/25, by school type:

Media Studies is referred to in the department’s attainment data ‘Media/Film/TV Studies’ and is a separate qualification to ‘Film Studies’.

The department’s qualification reforms aim to widen participation through clearer pathways, including new V Levels, the expansion of T Levels, and clearer level 2 routes through Occupational and Further Study Pathways.

We intend to develop V Levels in creative sectors for first teaching in 2030/31, and content will be consulted on before it is confirmed.

We are conducting exploratory work on content for potential creative T Levels, which includes extensive engagement with employers, providers and higher education institutions, as well as testing potential delivery models to support the sector.

We have already announced reforms to the delivery of industry placements, allowing for greater provider responsibility for determining appropriate delivery methods which should facilitate placements in creative settings

When designing the new pathways, we will consider learners who have special educational needs and disabilities, at risk of being not in employment, education or training, or who face other barriers to education to ensure that V Levels and level 2 routes are inclusive by design.

These changes aim to improve accessibility and participation, particularly for underrepresented groups.

Apprenticeship receipts in 2024-25 were £4,100 million. Full year figures for 2025-26 will not be available until the end of the 2025-26 tax year.

The apprenticeship budget funds all apprenticeship training in England, covering both existing and new apprenticeships, across all employers. The English apprenticeship budget in the 2024-25 financial year was £2,769 million. This increased to £3,075 million in the 2025-26 financial year at mains estimates, any further updates will be reflected at supplementary estimates. As announced by the Prime Minister in September, responsibility for apprenticeships has now transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions, and from 2026‑27 apprenticeships funding will be part of its budget.

While the Apprenticeship Levy is UK-wide, apprenticeship policy and spending are devolved. This means the devolved governments receive Barnett consequentials on apprenticeship spending in England through the Barnett formula. It is for the devolved governments to allocate their funding in devolved areas as they see fit, including investment in their own skills programmes, and they are accountable to their respective legislatures for those decisions.