Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support apprentices to catch up on the training and learning that they have missed during the covid-19 to ensure that they can finish their apprenticeship fully qualified.

The department is committed to supporting apprentices and employers to safely continue with, and complete, their apprenticeship programmes. We have introduced flexibilities to ensure that apprenticeship training and assessments can continue during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Where it is not possible and practicable for the apprentice to continue training, a break in learning can be used to allow the apprentice to return to learning at a future date. It is our goal that apprentices are able to promptly resume their apprenticeship and continue to successful completion of end-point assessment. For apprentices who have taken a formal break in learning, this will result in the planned end-date for their apprenticeship being replanned upon returning to learning to take into consideration the duration in line with the length of their break.

We continue to review the flexibilities in place to ensure high-quality training can continue allowing apprentices to undertake their learning and assessments despite current operating constraints. Our guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-apprenticeship-programme-response.