Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on supporting people to upskill and change career paths.

The Treasury is working to support people to upskill and change career paths.

At the Spending Review, young people and adults benefitted from the biggest long-term settlement for post-16 education in England since 2015. The government is investing a total over the Parliament of £3.8bn in skills by 2024-25, equivalent to a cash increase of 42% (26% in real terms) compared to 2019-20.

Spending Review 2021 delivered on the government’s commitment to invest an additional £500m per annum (£2.5bn total) in adult skills through the National Skills Fund, including continuing to offer free Level 3 courses for adults aged over 19 in high value subjects. This substantially boosts retraining opportunities for adults and will level up basic skills.

We are also quadrupling the current annual scale of skills bootcamps over the SR period. Employers work with providers to deliver short courses to develop occupational skills, with participants guaranteed a job interview on completion. Bootcamps offer an opportunity for all adults to reskill and change career paths.

SR21 also announced ‘Multiply’ – the Government’s new programme to level up adult numeracy. £560m across the SR period will give people the opportunity to develop their numeracy skills, funded from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Local areas will be allocated funding to deliver interventions from a menu of options including: delivering flexible Functional Skills courses to fit around adults’ lives; supporting adult to build their confidence with numbers; working with employers to deliver innovative workplace-based numeracy programmes. Getting numeracy skills is one of the most valuable things we can do to help people get on: getting Level 2 numeracy increases wages by an average of 14% after seven years, compared to 4% for Level 2 literacy.

Apprenticeships are the government’s premier in-work training offer, providing learners of all ages and at all stages of their careers the opportunity to learn new skills, retrain or upskill. There are over 640 high-quality apprenticeship standards available at levels 2 (GCSE equivalent) to 7 (Master’s degree equivalent), including in ‘in demand’ sectors such as logistics, digital, and health and social care, allowing learners to both build on existing learning and explore new career directions. Higher-level apprenticeships can be an important stepping-stone to achieving these aims. Spending Review 2021 announced the first increase to apprenticeship funding since 2019, with funding rising to £2.7bn by 2024-25.