Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) training and (b) education pathways align with the skills required in the (i) artificial intelligence, (ii) fintech, (iii) medtech and (iv) green industry.
Answered by Janet Daby
Through our Industrial Strategy, published in June 2025, this government will ensure the skills system and employment support align with strategic economic priorities, including the needs of priority growth sectors such as digital and technologies, clean energy, financial services and health, and for emerging technologies and transformative opportunities such as artificial intelligence (AI). For example, new short courses in areas such as digital, AI, and engineering will be introduced in England from April 2026, funded through the growth and skills levy. Skills England has been established to identify skills gaps across the economy, including in these priority growth sectors, and use these insights to improve and simplify skills provision so that people and business can best benefit from training. Skills England will work across government to ensure young people starting out in their careers, as well as adults who need to reskill, have clear education and training pathways.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Government’s free breakfast club early adopter programme on children’s (a) welfare and (b) educational outcomes.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government is committed to delivering on its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children.
Breakfast clubs offer much more than just food, serving as a welcoming space for children, providing valuable opportunities for them to play, learn, and socialise at the beginning of the school day. This will set them up to be ready to learn and supports working parents, boosting household incomes.
Schools running breakfast clubs report improvements in behaviour, attendance, concentration and attainment, and a universal breakfast club offer has been found to be a less stigmatising way to reach those who need it the most.
We are working closely with our early adopter schools during the test and learn phase to understand how schools are delivering the new free clubs, pupil take-up and impact. We will publish findings from the test and learn phase in due course.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the contribution of science and discovery centres to (a) UK STEM education, skills and career pathways, (b) inclusion and (c) public understanding of science.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department has no formal relationship with science and discovery centres and has therefore not made an assessment of their impact on education. We know many schools work with partners to enrich and supplement students’ core curriculum.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support universities in (a) meeting student recruitment and (b) space targets in the context of current immigration policies.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government has been clear that we welcome international students who meet the requirements to study in the UK. Higher education (HE) providers in the UK hosted 732,285 international students in the 2023/24 academic year, who come from all over the world and benefit UK HE and our society as a whole, boosting our economy by more than £21 billion a year.
The government is currently reviewing the UK’s International Education Strategy to ensure that it aligns with wider government policy and provides clear direction to the sector, including on international student recruitment.
Further, the department and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are working to ensure that the UK space sector can access the skills and talent needed to grow whilst ensuring long-term investment and growth of the domestic talent pool, in line with the Immigration White Paper and the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan.
This may include collaborative working on the 2025/26 Space Sector Skills Survey, or closer engagement in key sector-facing and ministerial forums on space, all of which will be key to advising the government on how to achieve the right balance of international talent and domestic opportunity.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of apprenticeships as pathways into (a) research and (b) innovation careers.
Answered by Janet Daby
There are a number of apprenticeships to support careers in research and innovation, including the level 6 product design and development engineer and level 6 materials science technologist.
Apprenticeships deliver strong outcomes and high satisfaction rates for learners and employers.
94% of apprentices go into work or further training, with 93% in sustained employment, and many apprentices remain with the employer following their apprenticeship.
In addition, latest data shows that 83% of employers were satisfied with their apprenticeship programme and 77% of employers reported improved productivity, while 86% of apprentices were satisfied with their apprenticeships and 88% felt their career prospects had improved since starting their apprenticeship.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits and disbenefits for (a) prospective and (b) current students of international student recruitment agencies operating in the UK.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government welcomes international students, who enrich our university campuses, forge lifelong friendships with our domestic students and make a significant economic contribution to the UK.
Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous institutions, which have the choice to use education recruitment agents when recruiting international students. Agents provide valuable services including marketing, promotion and support in identifying qualified students.
The department is working with the Home Office to ensure that education recruitment agents meet the needs of prospective and current international students. This will include requiring HE providers who use them to adhere to the stringent Agent Quality Framework, a code of practice developed by the HE sector which sets out overarching principles for how providers should manage their commercial arrangements with agents.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her plans are for higher education reform; and what the role is of innovation in that process.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government is committed to setting out a plan for reform of the higher education (HE) sector by the summer, focused on five priorities. We will expect our HE providers to:
My noble Friend, the Minister for Skills, is working closely with Lord Vallance to build on HE providers’ already significant contribution to innovation, increasing their contribution to the UK economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 16156 on Turing Scheme: Free School Meals, how many and what proportion of students with Turing grants are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Janet Daby
Through the Turing Scheme, in the 2024/25 academic year, education providers and other eligible organisations from across the UK and British Overseas Territories have been allocated over £105 million to send their students on more than 43,000 study and work placements across the globe. Around 23,000 (53%) of these opportunities will be for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Information on the number and proportion of disadvantaged students in previous years of the Turing Scheme is available at the following links:
For the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, the figures are subject to change following quality assurance of providers’ final reports of the placements that took place. This data will be published in due course.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of students with Turing grants who are eligible for free school meals attend an independent school.
Answered by Janet Daby
The Turing Scheme is the UK Government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. The Turing Scheme provides additional funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them to participate in international placements. All students from disadvantaged backgrounds can get funding for travel-related costs. This includes visa application fees, vaccines, medical certificates, passports, and related travel insurance. Students with special educational needs and disabilities can also get funding for their support needs.
Schools identify students from a disadvantaged background using the following criteria:
Receiving FSM in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England or primary 1 to 5 in Scotland does not automatically meet the criteria for funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This list is not exhaustive. If a school identifies pupils who do not precisely meet these criteria but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, they may include them in their application.
As the department does not gather data on which criteria students meet to be considered as being from a disadvantaged background, the department is not able to provide a breakdown of the number of participants in the Turing Scheme who are in receipt of FSM.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) schools and (b) students with Turing grants receive free school meals.
Answered by Janet Daby
The Turing Scheme is the UK Government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. The Turing Scheme provides additional funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them to participate in international placements. All students from disadvantaged backgrounds can get funding for travel-related costs. This includes visa application fees, vaccines, medical certificates, passports, and related travel insurance. Students with special educational needs and disabilities can also get funding for their support needs.
Schools identify students from a disadvantaged background using the following criteria:
Receiving FSM in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England or primary 1 to 5 in Scotland does not automatically meet the criteria for funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This list is not exhaustive. If a school identifies pupils who do not precisely meet these criteria but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, they may include them in their application.
As the department does not gather data on which criteria students meet to be considered as being from a disadvantaged background, the department is not able to provide a breakdown of the number of participants in the Turing Scheme who are in receipt of FSM.