Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding the Government has allocated to businesses in Coventry to support the recruitment of apprentices in each of the last three years.

In the last three financial years, available funding for apprenticeships in England has remained at around £2.5 billion. This is twice more than was spent in the 2010/11 financial year. By the 2024/25 financial year, government funding for apprenticeships will rise to £2.7 billion.

Funding is not allocated to individual areas for apprenticeships. Rather, all employers across England can access funding to offer high-quality apprenticeships to help meet their skills needs.

There were 2,010 new apprenticeship starts in the Coventry constituency in the financial year 2020/21, with 2,250 and 2,610 starts in the 2019/20 and 2018/19 respectively. The government is unable to provide a breakdown of apprenticeship spending by region as it does not publish this data.

The department is supporting employers to make greater use of their levy funds by improving the transfer system and developing more flexible models of apprenticeship delivery. This will enable more individuals and employers in all sectors to benefit from the high-quality, long-term training that an apprenticeship provides.