Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department and the Education and Skills Funding Agency are taking to support universities to work closely with non-levy-paying small and medium-sized enterprises.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The department and the Education and Skills Funding Agency continue to encourage universities to work with employers, including non-levy-paying small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund (DADF) has focussed on building collaborative projects between providers and employers; including non-levy-paying SMEs. DADF has funded additional engagement activities to better understand their needs.
Birmingham City University, University of Greenwich and Aston University have actively engaged with SMEs as part of DADF-funded projects.
Over the course of the next year, all employers will be able to control how they pay for their apprenticeship training and assess and recruit their apprentices via the apprenticeship service. This will allow non-levy paying SMEs to work closely with a greater number of high-quality training providers, including universities.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring universities in England to use contextual admissions tools to widen participation in higher education.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Widening access and participation in higher education is a priority for this government. This means that everyone with the capability to succeed in higher education should have the opportunity to participate, regardless of their background or where they grew up.
We have made real progress in ensuring universities are open to all, with record rates of disadvantaged 18 year olds in higher education. However, we are aware that more needs to be done to ensure that background isn’t a barrier to realising potential in higher education.
Many higher education providers are already using contextual admissions, to support widening access, and the government supports this.
It’s important that higher education providers use good quality and meaningful data to identify disadvantage and under-representation. We encourage institutions to use a range of measures to identify disadvantage and under-representation, including individual-level indicators, area data (such as POLAR, Index of Multiple Deprivation or ACORN), school data, intersectional data such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service's (UCAS) Multiple Equality Measure and participation in outreach activities. The department is continuing to work with the Office for Students, UCAS and sector representatives to further explore how we can support universities to improve and enhance access to data.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to widen access to the highest performing schools in England and Wales.
Answered by Nick Gibb
86% of schools in England are good or outstanding.
The Department has committed £7 billion to create new school places between 2015 and 2021, the vast majority of which are being created in the best existing schools or through good new schools. The Department is on track to create 1 million places this decade, the largest increase in school capacity in at least two generations.
Of the mainstream free schools approved between 2014 and 2017, 86% have been in areas where there was a need for more school places. 84% of free schools with inspection reports published by the end of May are rated good or outstanding.
98% of grammar schools are also good or outstanding and the Department wants more disadvantaged pupils to be able to access a place at them. That is why it has made £100 million available through the Selective Schools Expansion Fund to create additional places, where needed, in selective schools that commit to a plan to improve access for disadvantaged children. In 2018 the Department announced 16 selective schools to be funded to expand, and it launched a second bidding round in 2019.
Education is a devolved matter and it is for the Welsh national assembly to decide on education in Wales.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to (a) increase transparency of the amount of apprenticeship levy spent on different types of apprenticeship and (b) help ensure the availability of data on the socioeconomic background of apprentices by apprenticeship level.
Answered by Anne Milton
Our quarterly ‘Apprenticeships and Traineeships’ and monthly ‘Apprenticeships and Levy Statistics’ data releases provide extensive information on the breakdown of apprenticeship starts by level, sector subject area and framework/standard. This is in addition to whether starts are supported by the apprenticeship levy. The most recent quarterly release was published on 11 July 2019 and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships-july-2019. This data, in addition to our extensive engagement with employers and sector bodies, informs our picture of emerging demand across the employer-led apprenticeships programme.
We use the ‘Further education: indices of multiple deprivation’ data release to understand the background of apprentices and inform our widening participation policies. This data is broken down by apprenticeship level and benchmarked against data for participation in all further education and skills training. We know that apprentices disproportionately come from more disadvantaged areas: in 2017/18, 24% of participating apprentices came from the most disadvantaged fifth of areas, compared to 15.6% from the least disadvantaged fifth. This data is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/765589/Index_of_Multiple_Deprivation_201516_to_201718.xlsx.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to reintroduce young apprenticeships.
Answered by Anne Milton
There are currently no plans to reintroduce the Young Apprenticeships programme.
However, high-quality apprenticeships are available to people of all ages. Our reforms are improving apprenticeships by making them longer with more off-the job training and formal assessment at the end.
An apprenticeship provides the foundation for a successful career and is a great option for young people who are strong academically but want on-the-job experience and a high-quality alternative to full-time university study.
Traineeships are available to provide quality training to those young people who need to develop their skills and experience in order to enter the labour market. The department’s recent Traineeship Impact Evaluation Report shows that 75% of trainees are in apprenticeships, other jobs, or further learning a year after their traineeship.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of teaching coding in primary schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In September 2014, the Government introduced computing as a national curriculum subject at all four key stages, replacing the former information and communications technology curriculum. Computing education is now compulsory in all state maintained schools. As part of the new Ofsted inspection framework, operational from September 2019, inspectors will expect all pupils to study a broad and balanced curriculum, either through the National Curriculum, which includes computing, or a curriculum of comparable breadth.
The computing curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils have experience of writing computer programs. The UK is one of the first G20 countries to have introduced coding into the primary curriculum. The computing curriculum also ensures that pupils can become digitally literate.
In November 2018, the Government announced the new National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), led by leading industry experts and backed by £84 million of funding. The NCCE recently appointed the first 23 Computing Hubs, operational from autumn 2019, which will provide a range of continuing professional development opportunities for all teachers, and will build local expertise and capacity for school to school support.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of compulsory teaching of information technology until the age of 16.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In September 2014, the Government introduced computing as a national curriculum subject at all four key stages, replacing the former information and communications technology curriculum. Computing education is now compulsory in all state maintained schools. As part of the new Ofsted inspection framework, operational from September 2019, inspectors will expect all pupils to study a broad and balanced curriculum, either through the National Curriculum, which includes computing, or a curriculum of comparable breadth.
The computing curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils have experience of writing computer programs. The UK is one of the first G20 countries to have introduced coding into the primary curriculum. The computing curriculum also ensures that pupils can become digitally literate.
In November 2018, the Government announced the new National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), led by leading industry experts and backed by £84 million of funding. The NCCE recently appointed the first 23 Computing Hubs, operational from autumn 2019, which will provide a range of continuing professional development opportunities for all teachers, and will build local expertise and capacity for school to school support.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that school leavers are informed of degree apprenticeships.
Answered by Anne Milton
We are pleased that Universities UK has recognised degree apprenticeships as a ‘growing success story’. Degree apprenticeships give employers the opportunity to work with universities to develop the higher-level skills they need, and apprentices the opportunity to gain a degree while they earn. Alongside our work to raise awareness of these benefits, we are also making it easier to find and apply for vacancies with employers of all sizes.
Current vacancies can be found on the ‘Find an apprenticeship’ website, the UCAS ‘Careers finder’ site, and employers’ own websites. We encourage employers to promote their future vacancies up to a year in advance in our Higher and Degree Listing, which is published at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-and-degree-apprenticeships. We are aiming to publish our next listing, for vacancies commencing in September 2020, in September 2019 and this will be distributed to schools and handed out at events.
The Degree Apprenticeships Development Fund has supported initiatives including UCAS careers fairs, materials on apprenticeships for schools, and apprenticeship ambassadors. In the 2018/19 academic year, we attended 30 UCAS Higher Education Exhibitions across England, directly engaging with an estimated 8,500 young people, and worked with UCAS to contact over a quarter of a million more young people by email to raise awareness of apprenticeships
We also provide a free service to schools through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge project, to make sure that teachers have the knowledge and support to enable them to promote apprenticeships to their students. This has enabled over three quarters of a million young people to hear about apprenticeships since the project’s launch in 2016.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to (a) increase participation in sport in schools and (b) ensure that sport remains on the curriculum.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government firmly believes in the importance of physical education (PE), sport and extra-curricular activities to teach children the importance of physical activity to improve their physical and mental health as well as their overall wellbeing. Schools are free to organise and deliver a diverse and challenging PE curriculum that suits the needs of all of their pupils. However, PE is the only foundation subject on the national curriculum at all 4 key stages. The national curriculum must be taught by all maintained schools and it provides a frame of reference for academies in deciding what to offer as part of their broad and balanced curriculum offer.
Ofsted’s new inspection framework, which will come into effect from September 2019, has spilt the current judgement for personal development, behaviour and welfare into 2 new separate judgements: ‘behaviour and attitudes’ and ‘personal development’. This will give greater recognition to the work of schools to support the personal development of pupils, such as the opportunities that they have to learn about eating healthily and maintaining an active lifestyle. Inspectors will expect to see schools offering children a broad, balanced education, including opportunities to be active during the school day and through extracurricular activities.
Since 2013, the government has invested over £1 billion of ringfenced funding through the Primary PE and Sport Premium to improve PE, sport, physical activity and extra-curricular activities for all pupils in England.
We will shortly be publishing our cross-government school sport and activity action plan, under which the Department for Education, working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care, will consider further ways to ensure that all children have access to high quality, protected PE and sport sessions during the school week and opportunities to be physically active throughout the school day.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to (a) update curriculums and (b) develop new courses to take account the evolution of artificial intelligence.
Answered by Anne Milton
Ensuring that our children have the digital and computing skills needed for the future is a key priority of this government. Demand for high-level skills in computing will continue to grow in the years ahead and will be crucial to supporting a successful economy.
To meet the demand for high-level skills in computing, the government has introduced computing as a statutory national curriculum subject at all four key stages and reformed the computer science GCSE and A Level. The reformed GCSE, introduced for first teaching from September 2016, aims to ensure that all pupils understand the fundamental principles of computer science, including knowledge on artificial intelligence, programming, coding and data representation. The reformed A level places emphasis on programming, algorithms and problem solving.
In March 2018, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, committed to making no further changes to the national curriculum beyond those that had already been announced in response to teacher feedback. Currently there are no plans to make further changes to the national curriculum during this Parliament.
In November 2018 DfE launched the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), backed by £84 million in new funding. The NCCE is run by a coalition of STEM Learning, the British Computing Society and Raspberry Pi and supported by industry.
The department is introducing T Levels as a high quality, technical alternative to A levels. The first T levels will start in September 2020, with all routes available from September 2022. Digital is one of the first subjects that will be rolled out in 2020. The department is also designing new apprenticeship standards that are more responsive to the needs of business both now and in the future, ensuring that employers can secure the skills they need to succeed.
Finally, the government recently announced further investment to drive up skills in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science and support more adults to upskill and retrain to progress in their careers or find new employment.
Up to 2,500 people from underrepresented groups will have the opportunity to retrain and become experts in data science and AI, thanks to a £13.5 million investment to fund new degree and Masters conversion courses and scholarships at UK academic institutions over the next three years.