Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help older people access financial support for higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will launch for courses starting in January 2027.
The LLE will transform the student finance system in England, broadening access to high-quality, flexible education and training across levels 4 to 6. It will support people to learn, upskill and retrain across their working lives.
The LLE will fund all courses currently funded through the Higher Education Student Finance system and, for the first time, provide access to funding for modules as well as full courses.
All new learners will be able to access a full entitlement equal to 4 years of full-time tuition. Tuition fee loans will be available up to the age of 60. Learners over 60 may still qualify for maintenance support. The vast majority of the working population will therefore have access to this funding, supporting them to retrain and upskill.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the capacity of the education system to help improve opportunities for young people.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The department is assessing the capacity of the education system as part of our work to deliver the Opportunity Mission. This is why we are starting by recruiting 6,500 additional teachers to address workforce shortages, creating 3,000 new or expanded school-based nurseries to increase the availability of high quality affordable childcare places and launching Skills England which will play a pivotal role in making sure our skills system meets the needs of young people and employers. We are also investing more in children’s services to set them on a sustainable trajectory and have announced new funding for kinship care and fostering to keep children safe and provide family security for our most vulnerable children.