Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students started a nursing degree apprenticeship in 2017-18.

There have been 64,830 apprenticeship starts in Health, Public Services and Care, reported to date, in the first three quarters of the 2017 to 2018 academic year (August 2017 to April 2018) in England:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.

We want to increase the number of nursing apprenticeships and now have a complete apprentice pathway from entry level to postgraduate advanced clinical practice in nursing. This will support people from all backgrounds to enter a nursing career in the NHS.

The registered nurse (degree) apprenticeship standard was approved for delivery on 9 May 2017. To date, there have been 260 starts on the registered nurse (degree) apprenticeship in the 2017 to 2018 academic year (August 2017 to April 2018) in England.

We have also created a new programme for nursing associate (Level 5 standard approved for delivery on 20 November 2017) apprentices to broaden the routes into the profession. 5,000 starts are planned in 2018, with a further 7,500 in 2019. To date, there have been 640 starts on the nursing associate apprenticeship in the 2017 to 2018 academic year (August 2017 to April 2018) in England.

We are working closely with employers, Health Education England and ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care to make sure the NHS is fully supported to recruit apprentices, both in nursing and in a range of other occupations.