Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress she has made in establishing defence technical excellence colleges.

The department is introducing Technical Excellence Colleges (TECs) to specialise in training skilled workforces which industry needs in growth-driving priority sectors. The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy confirmed that we will establish Defence Technical Excellence Colleges, provide funding for courses for defence related skills, and invest in cutting edge university facilities to increase places for defence skills provision. Delivering this package will be a joint endeavour between government and industry. The department has been working with the Ministry of Defence on this and further detail will be set out in the forthcoming Defence Industrial Strategy.