Oral Answers to Questions

Julie Elliott Excerpts

Monday 24th June 2013 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central) (Lab)]

1. What recent progress he has made on apprenticeships for 16 to 18-year-olds.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)]

The number of 16 to 18-year-olds starting apprenticeships in 2011-12 was 129,900, down by 1.4% on the previous year.

[Julie Elliott]

With youth apprenticeships down on last year and the demise of the professional careers service as most people recognise it, what are the Government doing to ensure that young people receive the correct advice on starting apprenticeships, and, in particular, the route to higher level qualifications that some apprenticeships can lead to?

[Michael Gove]

The hon. Lady is quite right that we need to encourage all students to consider apprenticeships as a high quality alternative to the academic path. I commend the activity that Sunderland city council and Sunderland football club are under-taking to ensure that more young people in that great city consider apprenticeships as a viable role for the future. I should add that the recent diminution in the number of 16 to 19-year-olds taking apprenticeships was due significantly to the fact that we were reducing the number of low quality apprenticeships where the duration was shorter than a proper apprenticeship needs to be and the quality of tuition was less effective than a good apprenticeship needs to be, but there is still more to be done.