Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure young people from disadvantaged backgrounds can access Level 7 apprenticeships.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth with the support of a strong skills system.

To support young people, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to access apprenticeships in England, the department is promoting apprenticeships to students in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme and targeting young people through the Skills for Life campaign.

The department is also transforming career opportunities and advice to increase awareness of the range of high-quality options available to young people, including apprenticeships. The department has committed to improve careers advice and guarantee two weeks’ worth of work experience for every young person, as well as establish a national jobs and careers service to support people into work and help them get on at work.​

This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers. In 2023/24, 65% of level 7 starts were by people over 25 years old. The future funding for apprenticeships at level 7 is under review and we will be asking more employers to step forward and fund these themselves. The department is taking advice from Skills England, who engaged with employers over the autumn, and the department expects to make a final decision on affected apprenticeships shortly.

To support more young people, who have the most to gain from apprenticeships, to access high-quality training, the department is developing new foundation apprenticeships. These will give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives whilst supporting the pipeline of new talent that employers will need to drive economic growth.