Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to increase the quality of construction apprenticeships.

New, employer-designed apprenticeship standards are at the centre of our reforms to drive up quality and develop the skills businesses need for the future, in every part of the economy. Standards describe full occupational competence, as agreed by employers, and must include a rigorous and independent end-point assessment.

In the construction sector, 66 standards have already been approved for delivery and a further 33 are in development by trailblazer groups comprising employers of all sizes.

The move to standards, together with the minimum 20% off-the-job training rule, has already contributed to a 25% rise in expected apprenticeship training hours. The government has committed to all apprenticeship starts being on standards by the end of the 2019-20 academic year. Frameworks will be withdrawn on 31 July 2020.

We have also introduced quality assurance in apprenticeship training and assessment at all levels from a range of independent specialist bodies, and strengthened the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers to give employers confidence that apprentices will receive high-quality training.