Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Hayes and David Amess

Monday 18th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

T5. What action are the Government taking to ensure that our vigorous vocational education at our university technical colleges leads to apprenticeships?

[Mr Hayes]

I share the view of my noble friend Lord Baker, who has been such an inspiration in respect of university technical colleges, that a key part of the offer should be apprenticeships for 16 to 18-year-olds. Aston UTC, which opens this September, will offer those kinds of products for its students, and I expect many other UTCs to follow suit. We are doing what Rab Butler in 1944 asked us to do—delivering a vocational route as rigorous, as navigable and as seductive as the academic route.