Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2016 to Question 47389, on apprentices, how her Department plans to ensure that each new apprenticeship standard is of high quality.

All new apprenticeship standards are designed by employers themselves in order to ensure they cover the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for full competence in the occupation.

Before being approved, all standards are rigorously reviewed by the Department against clear quality criteria: these are set out in the “Future of Apprenticeships in England: Guidance for Trailblazers - from standards to starts”, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-apprenticeships-in-england-guidance-for-trailblazers.

These include evidence that the standard relates to a clear and distinct occupation, is stretching enough to require at least 12 months of sustained on and off-the job training, has sufficient support from employers to demonstrate that there is a clear need for the apprenticeship and is at a sufficiently high level that it supports transferability across sectors.

From next April, the new Institute for Apprenticeships will be charged with approving and reviewing standards to ensure they are high-quality and allow everyone undertaking an apprenticeship to get the training they deserve.