Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the apprenticeship levy in increasing the (a) number and (b) quality of apprenticeships in England since the implementation of that levy.

We’ve introduced a wide range of reforms to apprenticeships to improve quality and deliver the skills valued by employers that will increase productivity and help stimulate growth. This includes moving to employer-designed apprenticeship standards and underpinning some of the reforms by statute - including ensuring all apprenticeships last a minimum of 12 months, with at least 20 per cent off-the job training.

The apprenticeship levy, launched on 6 April 2017, is an important part of our reforms, making sure there is long-term investment in apprenticeship training. Employers have taken time to plan their training but there have been 1.3 million starts in England since 2015; and there were 71,600 starts on apprenticeship standards reported in the first half of 2017/18; significantly higher than the 7,500 reported at this time last year (2016/17). This represents 36.9 per cent of all starts reported in 2017/18, showing that employers are moving quickly to the new higher quality offer.

We expect the reforms to apprenticeships to have a positive effect on the amount of overall training undertaken by apprentices. The 20 per cent off-the job training rule, the shift to standards with a longer average duration, and the drop off in starts in lower-quality frameworks are likely to mean that, on average, apprentices will get more training throughout their apprenticeship.