Apprentices and Vacancies: Coronavirus

(asked on 16th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the number of (a) graduate job vacancies and (b) apprenticeship starts in (i) Coventry North East constituency, (ii) Coventry, (iii) the West Midlands and (iv) England.


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 22nd March 2021

We recognise that a number of education leavers will face challenges gaining employment due to the ongoing adverse impact on the UK labour market and economy of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Recent data from the Office for National Statistics shows that unemployment amongst graduates in the UK has been consistently lower than the total unemployed. The unemployment rate for recent graduates remains below the youth (16-24 years of age) unemployment rate. This data can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/graduateslabourmarketoutcomesduringthecoronaviruscovid19pandemicoccupationalswitchesandskillmismatch/2021-03-08. We do not hold data about graduate-specific job vacancies and how these vary by region.

The government is doing all it can to help people who are at the start of their career journey. The Department for Work and Pensions is aiming to have a nationwide network of 27,000 Work Coaches in place by the end of March 2021 to support jobseekers and match them with employers who are recruiting.

As part of the government’s skills recovery package Plan for Jobs announced on 8 July 2020, we are investing an additional £32 million in the National Careers Service up to March 2022. This investment will provide individual careers advice for 269,000 more people whose jobs or learning have been affected by COVID-19. On 29 September 2020 we added additional courses to The Skills Toolkit covering digital, numeracy and employability skills. The new content includes a range of courses to develop ‘work readiness’ skills that employers report they value in their new recruits.

The Department for Education is working with Universities UK, the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, the Institute of Student Employers, the Office for Students, and the sector to understand what more we can do to support graduates who are looking to enter the labour market or continue their studies at this challenging time.

Apprenticeships are more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need. In recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak we introduced a number of flexibilities to ensure that apprenticeships can continue where possible. This includes flexibilities to off-the-job training to support remote learning and making it possible for furloughed apprentices to continue their apprenticeships and undertake end-point assessments.

To help employers across the country offer new apprenticeships we have increased the duration and level of incentive payments. Employers will be able to claim £3,000 for each apprentice they take on as a new employee between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021 under the government’s Plan for Jobs. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/incentive-payments-for-hiring-a-new-apprentice.

Apprenticeships starts in the first quarter of 2020/21 academic year (reported to date) in the requested geographies, and the equivalent 2019/20 academic year figures are shown in the attached table.

The latest data on apprenticeships and traineeships is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.

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