Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the recognition of vocational qualifications.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) provide an important and valued route for many young people and adults. We are streamlining and improving the quality of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below. Our reforms will put employers at the heart of the system, ensuring that all qualifications are fit for purpose, high quality and lead to good outcomes. We are creating clearly defined academic and technical routes at level 3, leading to future study and or skilled employment.
As set out in our level 3 consultation response published in July 2021, students will continue to be able to study qualifications similar to current Applied General qualifications where there is no overlap with T Levels. On 11 May we published a provisional list of 160 qualifications that overlap with the first two waves of T Levels. These qualifications will have funding approval withdrawn for anyone eligible to access the qualification through the 16-19 funding offer on 1 August 2024, unless awarding organisations successfully appeal their qualifications’ inclusion. The final list will be published in September 2022.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help promote the value of technical qualifications.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The department is strengthening routes for all students to progress through the system, by introducing high-quality technical qualifications that support young people’s progression and meet the needs of employers.
In January this year the department launched our ‘Get the Jump’ campaign, which helps 14-19 year olds explore all their education and training options. We recognise that technical education routes have lower levels of awareness, therefore this campaign spotlights T Levels, Apprenticeships, Traineeships and Higher Technical Qualifications in particular.
The department is also working closely with the Careers and Enterprise Company and Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme to ensure that teachers and careers leaders have the information and resources they need to communicate the benefits of T Levels to their students.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps his Department is taking to support more young people into technical and further education.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
The Skills for Jobs White Paper sets our plans to transform technical education and is focused on giving people the skills they need, in a way that suits them, so they can get great jobs in sectors the economy needs and boost productivity.
Our reforms will put employers at the heart of the skills system and by 2030, almost all technical courses will be on employer-led standards, ensuring that the education and training people receive are directly linked to the skills needed for jobs.
We have been raising the quality and prestige of technical education by introducing T Levels, which are a high-quality technical alternative to A levels with an industry placement, and are reforming higher technical education (Level 4/5) to make it a more popular and prestigious choice that provides the skills employers need.
The Plan for Jobs introduced last year provides a package of support to ensure young people have the skills and training to go on to high quality, secure and fulfilling employment. This includes incentives for employers to take on new apprentices, supporting the largest-ever expansion of Traineeships, giving school and college leavers the opportunity to study high value Level 2 and 3 courses, and funding more vocational training placements to support the delivery of sector-based work academy programme (SWAP) placements.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her announcement of 2 November 2015 Introducing greater emphasis on literacy and numeracy at key stage 2, what representations she has since received on that policy; and approximately how many such representations were (a) against and (b) in favour of that statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We have not received specific representations on literacy and numeracy following the Secretary of State’s announcement in November. The government remains committed to raising standards of literacy and numeracy and works closely with professionals to raise standards for all pupils so that they are equipped to succeed in education and in life. In 2010, one in every three children starting secondary school was unable to read, write, or add up properly. Following government reforms, teachers have driven up standards with the figure now at one in five.
It is vital that we get the foundation right so that every child has a fair chance to succeed through all key stages. That is why we have placed phonics at the heart of the early teaching of reading and introduced a phonics check at the end of year 1 to enable schools to assess whether the essential building blocks of reading are in place. The percentage of pupils meeting the required standards of phonics in year 1 has increased from 58 percent in 2012 to 77 percent in 2015, putting 120,000 more 6 year olds each year on track to become confident readers. We fund a programme of 200 book clubs in primary schools where reading attainment at key stage 2 is currently low, and support schools to enrol year 3 pupils with a public library.
Beyond this, we have placed a greater emphasis within the primary curriculum and assessment on a secure grasp of the essentials such as grammar, punctuation and spelling, introducing a grammar, punctuation and spelling test in year 6.
For mathematics, we have placed particular emphasis in the primary curriculum on fluency in mental and written calculation. Just as knowledge of phonics is an essential foundation for success in reading, sound knowledge of arithmetic is essential for future success in mathematics. We removed the use of calculators for the end of key stage 2 mathematics tests from 2014 and in January 2016 we announced that all children will have their multiplication skills checked at the age of 11.
We want to ensure that all children have the right foundation at primary school and that any child who falls behind can catch up quickly. We provide funding to secondary schools to help year 7 pupils catch up and, as the Secretary of State said in her November speech, we have announced a resit test for year 7 pupils who do not meet expected standards in reading or mathematics at the end primary school.