Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
What plans his Department has to help secondary school pupils choose tertiary education courses informed by the (a) salaries and (b) employment rates of people completing those courses.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The National Careers Service website provides robust national labour market information (LMI), including average earnings and typical work hours, for individual occupations. In the Skills for Jobs white paper we set out the ambition that the National Careers Service website will be updated to become a single source of government-assured careers information for young people and adults. The revamped website will include improved and updated labour market information. We will bring together all the learning and careers routes available to people, along with improved content on work experience, the job market, and applying for roles.
We published updated statutory guidance for schools and colleges in July 2021. This includes a reminder to schools of their obligation to inform students when courses they are considering lead to poor career outcomes.
We are working closely with our partners to develop the best approach to making localised LMI available to schools and colleges. The Careers & Enterprise Company is working with local partners, including Skills Advisory Panels, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and Mayoral Combined Authorities to develop a greater understanding of local skills needs and disseminate LMI to schools and colleges. This includes promoting the use of the National Careers Service website and encouraging Careers Leaders to interpret labour market data for their students.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to respond to the letters from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare of 11 January 2021 and 8 February 2021 on behalf of his constituent, Michael Saunders, on funding for a university course.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I can confirm that a response has been sent to the letters dated 11 January and 8 February 2021, from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to reply to the correspondence of 10 December 2020 and of 15 January 2021 from the right hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on behalf of his constituent about covid-19 in special schools with medically vulnerable children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I can confirm that a response has been sent to the letters dated 10 December, reference JP56880 and 15 January, reference JP5688010, from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to reply to the letters of 9 November and 8 December 2020 from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on behalf of his constituent Chris Hildrew, headteacher of Churchill Academy & Sixth Form, on the effect of covid-19 on schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I can confirm that a response has been sent ref JP56663, to the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress is being made on the roll-out of the National Retraining Scheme; how many people (a) that scheme has been rolled out to and (b) have taken up that scheme; and which locations that scheme has been rolled out to.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have taken a user centred, test and learn approach to developing the National Retraining Scheme, starting small and developing products iteratively. Through this approach we have introduced the first part of the scheme, Get Help to Retrain, alongside developing other areas such as online training and in-work technical training.
Get Help to Retrain helps users to understand their current skills, explore alternative occupations that they could do and find and sign up to the training they need to access opportunities for a broad range of good jobs.
We started testing the digital service in the Liverpool City Region in July 2019, and have since improved the service and rolled out to eligible users in five further areas: West Midlands, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North East, Leeds, and Heart of the South West. To date, over 2,700 users have accessed Get Help to Retrain.
Due to the current circumstances, including the COVID-19 outbreak, we are reviewing what the implications could be in terms of the development and roll out of Get Help to Retrain. We are developing our approach for the National Retraining Scheme in the context of the new National Skills Fund and other reforms to adult skills funding and provision and we will provide a further update in due course.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to extend the National Retraining Scheme.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have taken a user centred, test and learn approach to developing the National Retraining Scheme, starting small and developing products iteratively. Through this approach we have introduced the first part of the scheme, Get Help to Retrain, alongside developing other areas such as online training and in-work technical training.
Get Help to Retrain helps users to understand their current skills, explore alternative occupations that they could do and find and sign up to the training they need to access opportunities for a broad range of good jobs.
We started testing the digital service in the Liverpool City Region in July 2019, and have since improved the service and rolled out to eligible users in five further areas: West Midlands, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North East, Leeds, and Heart of the South West. To date, over 2,700 users have accessed Get Help to Retrain.
Due to the current circumstances, including the COVID-19 outbreak, we are reviewing what the implications could be in terms of the development and roll out of Get Help to Retrain. We are developing our approach for the National Retraining Scheme in the context of the new National Skills Fund and other reforms to adult skills funding and provision and we will provide a further update in due course.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to reply to the letter of 23 June 2017 from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on funding for apprenticeships.
Answered by Anne Milton
Our records show that a response to the letter from the MP of 23 June was issued on 25 July. I apologise for the typing error in the email address and the delay in providing a response. The response was re-issued to the correct email address on 9 October.