Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Government plans to provide (a) businesses and (b) the education sector to maintain apprenticeships during the covid-19 outbreak.

We are working with training providers, end-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance organisations to support apprentices and employers during this challenging time.

We are encouraging training providers to deliver training remotely and via e-learning as far as is practicable. We are also allowing the modification of end-point assessment arrangements, including remote assessments where possible, to ensure that apprentices can continue to complete their apprenticeships.

We recognise that some apprentices may be unable to undertake training and that training providers may be unable to deliver it at present. We have therefore temporarily changed the funding rules to allow employers and training providers to initiate a break in learning of over 4 weeks, enabling apprenticeships to resume when it becomes possible to do so.

On 23 March 2020, we issued guidance setting out how the apprenticeship programme is responding to the impact of Covid-19: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-apprenticeship-programme-response. We are keeping the guidance under review and will publish updates as the situation evolves.

The government has set out a comprehensive package of support for business which includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms to keep people in employment: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses.