Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Rotheram Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laws]

I assure my hon. Friend that we will continue the massive investment in school places right across the country, including in his area where there has been huge investment under this coalition Government—far greater than under the last Labour Government.

[Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

6. What progress she has made on introducing the technical baccalaureate.

[The Minister for Skills and Equalities (Nick Boles)]

Schools and colleges started teaching the 230 new tech-level qualifications that will count towards the “tech bac” from September this year.

[Steve Rotheram]

On 21 July the Minister told the House:

“I am very hopeful that about 25% of young people will take up the opportunity of a “tech bac”.—[Official Report, 21 July 2014; Vol. 584, c. 1141.]

Will he update the House on enrolment figures so far, and say how far they go towards meeting the Government’s target of 320,000 young people?

[Nick Boles]

It is probably better to explain how the “tech bac” works. It is, like the EBacc, a group of qualifications, and we will know how many students have achieved the “tech bac”, or are studying for it, only when the 16-to-19 tables for 2016 are produced in early 2017. There will not be any figures under any Government for the number enrolled in “tech bac”—students do not enrol in it; they are measured after the event on whether they have achieved the qualifications that count towards the “tech bac”.

[Steve Rotheram]

What about the take-up?”

[Nick Boles]

The hon. Gentleman keeps asking questions from a sedentary position, but he has betrayed the fact that he completely misunderstands the policy. That is curious since the Labour party has spent a long time claiming that it was its policy in the first place. “Tech bac” is a group of qualifications. Students do not enrol in it; they discover whether they have achieved it at the end of the period.