Mel Stride
Main Page: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)Department Debates - View all Mel Stride's debates with the Department for Education
(10 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberAs I said in answer to a previous question, we are in the process of consulting. It is important that we get this right so that we do not penalise employees by getting the rules wrong. Many employees benefit from zero-hours contracts and we need to ensure that we take the right action rather than hasty action. We will respond to the consultation and make proposals to get rid of the exploitative factor in zero-hours contracts.
T6. Agriculture matters in my constituency yet the average age of my farmers is about 60, so we have a desperate need to encourage young people to go into farming. I know that my hon. Friend the Minister for Skills and Enterprise made a statement to the House yesterday about the reforms to the apprenticeship scheme, but will he outline how his reforms will encourage young people to use apprenticeships to go into farming?
Of course, apprenticeships increasingly cover the whole economy, including farming and agriculture. The number of apprenticeships in agriculture has increased by a quarter and I am pleased to say that we are working with farmers in our trailblazer reforms of apprenticeships to get them and the agriculture sector to write the rules on what training is needed to ensure that apprenticeships work better for them in future.