Apprenticeships

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

I pay tribute to my noble friend, who for many years has been a doughty champion particularly of those with dyslexia, and who has raised awareness of the difficulties that they face. If there is a problem with access to assessment, as he described, it should be taken up first with the centre but also with the awarding body. There is a duty on all awarding bodies to make sure that access to assessment is appropriate to whatever the learning disability is. Certainly the final penalty that the body would pay would be to lose awarding-body status. However, one would hope that the duty it had to its students would kick in long before that happened.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm whether her action plan includes government departments? Have the Government monitored the number of apprenticeships in government departments that are held by people with disabilities? If this is in the action plan, will the requirement be extended to public procurement contracts?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, there is certainly an action plan to increase the number of apprentices with a disability throughout the workforce through all sorts of employers. Certainly, government employers will be included in that plan.