Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding of the Social Mobility Commission’s Report on Apprenticeships and Social Mobility, published 24 June 2020, that disadvantage gaps exist at every stage of the apprenticeship journey; and what steps he is taking to reduce those gaps.

As the Social Mobility Commission found, apprenticeships help boost employment and reduce the gap in earnings between people from disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged backgrounds. I met recently with the Social Mobility Commission to discuss the report, the importance of quality in the apprenticeship system, and our commitment to working closely with the Commission in future.

We are committed to levelling up opportunity across the country, and think apprenticeships will be key to the recovery, especially in providing high-quality employment opportunities for young people. We recognise that employers, at the moment, face increased challenges with hiring new apprentices and so we will introduce a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. Employers can choose how best to spend this payment to support their apprentices; this could include supporting with uniform and travel costs. The new payment is on top of the additional payments we make to cover costs associated with apprentices who may need extra support, including those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. We are also investing £111 million to triple the number of traineeships to support those further from the labour market into employment and training. Details can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury.

We have worked with some of the country’s most influential employers through our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network to promote best practice at each stage of the apprenticeship journey – from outreach and recruitment, to supporting apprentices from diverse backgrounds achieve their apprenticeship and progress. Our Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge programme supports schools across England to provide disadvantaged students with information on apprenticeships.

We continue to listen to employers, providers and apprentices, to see how we can build on our reforms so that they continue to support people from all backgrounds and the economy more broadly.