Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department collects on training courses recommended by Work Coaches.

Jobcentre Plus work coaches recommend options to claimants that address skills barriers to securing and progressing in work. Those options range from our highly successful sector-based work academy programme (SWAPs) to more intensive interventions such as Department for Education funded Skills Bootcamps, Free Courses for Jobs, and through the apprenticeship programme.

DWP Train and Progress also means that UC claimants can apply to, and participate in, DfE Skills Bootcamps and access a significant range of Free Courses for Jobs (Level 3) skills provision, and equivalents funded by the Devolved Administrations, where work-related training could be up to 16 weeks in length.

In addition, the Returnerships package announced at Budget 2023 will promote accelerated apprenticeships, Sector-Based Work Academy Programme placements and Skills Bootcamps to the over 50s. This will support better access to re-training and allow workers of all ages to engage with the opportunities of a second career.

For the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, as of 12^th March 2023, there were a total of 179,000 SWAP starts.

Work coach recommendations to training courses are recorded on the claimant’s individual work plan, DWP are unable to aggregate that information.