Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of apprentices in England leaving apprenticeships early during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of (1) furlough, and (2) redundancy, broken down by industry sector.

We are committed to supporting apprentices to safely continue with, and complete, their apprenticeship programmes during the COVID-19 outbreak.

We have introduced flexibilities to enable furloughed apprentices to continue with their apprenticeship training and undertake end-point assessments wherever possible. We have also taken significant steps to support apprentices who suffer redundancy.

We launched the Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices which provides clear, accessible advice and guidance to individuals, as well as a vacancy sharing scheme to help apprentices find new opportunities with employers. Over 1,200 employers have submitted opportunities to the vacancy sharing service for redundant apprentices. We have also amended legislation to enable more apprentices to complete their apprenticeship in the event of redundancy.

Where it is not possible and practicable for the apprentice to continue training, a break in learning can be used to allow the apprentice to return to learning at a future date. Our guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-apprenticeship-programme-response.

The department does not collect data on furloughed and redundant apprentices by industry sector.

From 30 July 2020, employers have been able to record on the apprenticeship service if an apprenticeship has ended due to a redundancy. Our collected data on 1 December 2020 shows that 1,360 apprenticeships have ended due to redundancy since August 2020. This figure does not include all apprenticeship redundancies as not all non-levy employers are currently using the service. Further breakdown of data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.