Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that armed forces recruits aged between 16 and 19 without a GCSE in mathematics or English are prepared for later life outside the armed forces.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) provides Service personnel with a range of educational, learning and development opportunities with our Learning Centres employing English and mathematics tutors who are employed to teach in numeracy and literacy. Over 95% of recruits are enrolled into an Apprenticeship Programme each year, regardless of their age, which ensures that Service personnel gain a Level 2 in numeracy and literacy. This is the equivalent of a GCSE.

It is an Ofsted goal that we encourage our people to achieve maths and English GCSE. The Ministry of Defence does actively encourage our Personnel to gain GCSE maths and English, and provides many opportunities for them to do this in their career with classes run in learning and development centres using part time Service instructors; or using distance learning programmes for exams sat on operational units and in shore bases.