Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the call from the CBI for a rethink of the Apprenticeships Training Levy in the light of the costs to businesses.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
We’ve been talking to hundreds of businesses, and other bodies including the CBI, since we announced the apprenticeship levy in last summer’s budget and these conversations have played a major part in shaping how the apprenticeship levy will work.
Businesses across the country can only grow and compete on the world stage if they have the right people with the right skills. Alongside employer led apprenticeship standards and the new Institute for Apprenticeships, the levy will boost the quality and quantity of apprenticeships - something employers agree is needed for a productive UK workforce.
We know businesses want to understand how the levy will work for them, that’s why we published a detailed guide last month that is already being used by tens of thousands of employers.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to tackle the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry, and what assessment they have made of the implications of that shortage for their housing and infrastructure programmes.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Government is undertaking a range of activities to support skills in the infrastructure and home building sectors. These include the reform of the apprenticeship system, the new apprenticeship levy, and the National Colleges Programme - which includes the National College for High Speed Rail. From April 2015 all government procurers of construction and infrastructure projects over £10 million are to include measures in pre-qualification and contract delivery to encourage skills development.
The Construction Leadership Council and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have separately undertaken work to encourage more people into the construction sector, including the launch of the GO-Construct website and work with the National Careers Service and Construction Ambassadors for schools. The CITB has also been working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Armed Forces resettlement service and Local Enterprise Partnerships to encourage experienced individuals into the sector. In total, £42 million was invested by CITB, supporting 18,500 construction apprentices in 2015.
In addition, the Transport Infrastructure Skills Strategy, produced under the oversight of Terry Morgan, Chair of Crossrail, will set out further actions to be taken specifically to ensure the supply of skills to deliver transport infrastructure.
Assessments of demand for construction skills include the National Infrastructure Plan for Skills, which estimates that 250,000 construction and 150,000 engineering construction workers will be required to meet demand in the infrastructure sector by 2020. The CITB estimate that 224,000 new construction jobs are set to be created in the UK over the next five years.