Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support businesses to invest in skills and training.

The department’s Industrial Strategy sets out the interventions we will make to help tackle barriers to employer engagement with the skills system. This includes introducing shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in priority sectors, the introduction of short courses in England, funded through the Growth and Skills Levy from April 2026, and skills packages targeted at skills needed in multiple Industrial Strategy sectors, such as digital, engineering, and the defence sector, in addition to the £625 million construction skills package to train up to 60,000 skilled construction workers across this Parliament.

This investment will be underpinned by deeper employer partnerships, including launching Technical Excellence Colleges to develop pipelines of skilled workers for local businesses.

The Chair of Skills England, in partnership with the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, will explore how employers, individuals and local and central government work together to address national skills needs, to support jobs of the future in the growth-driving sectors, and in particular opportunities for further business engagement and investment into the skills pipeline.