Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on improving skills training in Wallasey constituency.

The department regularly discusses skills matters with other government departments, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, but not specifically about individual constituencies.

The department is investing £3.8 billion more in further education and skills over the Parliament to ensure people across the country, including in Wallasey, have access to the skills they need to build a fulfilling career in jobs the economy needs.

The department has boosted funding by an extra £1.6 billion for 16 to 19 education in 2024/25 compared with 2021/22. This is the biggest increase in 16 to 19 funding in a decade and will help to fund the additional students anticipated in the system, 40 extra hours per student, and an affordable increase in funding rates per 16 to 19 student.

This additional funding will help providers such as Wirral Metropolitan College, which is a very strong General Further Education College serving the Wallasey area. Their curriculum offer includes T Levels, apprenticeships, an extensive range of qualifications from entry level to higher education, and adult education programmes. Their provision is shaped in collaboration with local employers to ensure it meets local skills needs and the college is also a strategic partner in the delivery of the Wirral Waters project, which enables its learners to access unique learning and employment opportunities.

The college started to offer T Levels in September 2022 and has plans to build this offer in future years, but there are also a number of other local colleges offering T Levels to students in the area since 2021, such as The City of Liverpool College, Hugh Baird College and Birkenhead Sixth Form College.

The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 and supporting employers in all sectors and all areas of the country to use apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need. Since May 2010, there have been a total of 12,940 apprenticeship starts in Wallasey.

The department has introduced the Free Courses for Jobs scheme, which enables adult learners without a level 3 qualification (or learners with any qualification level, but earning below the National Living Wage) to gain a qualification for free. This is serving communities right across the country.

In addition, we have also introduced Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with an employer. There are digital Skills Bootcamps based in Wirral which offer training online as well as Skills Bootcamps in other sectors being delivered both online and face to face in the Liverpool region, which Wallasey residents would be eligible to apply for. An example of this is Tech Lancaster’s Electronics Skills Bootcamp which is being delivered in Liverpool.

The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) at £1.34 billion in the 2021/22 academic year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

Currently, approximately 60% of the AEB is devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Mayor of London. This includes Liverpool City region which covers Wallasey. This gives Liverpool City Region direct control over adult education provision for their residents and provides the local area with the opportunity to meet local needs.