Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the importance of independent training providers in delivering training to meet current and future skills shortages in (1) the North East, and (2) the wider UK economy.

In our Skills for Jobs White Paper, published in January 2021, we recognised the unique knowledge and capacity that independent training providers bring. They are the largest provider type delivering apprenticeships and they contribute substantially to adult education and training. In the academic year 2019 to 2020, enrolments at publicly funded private sector providers were:

- 21,700 apprentices and 15,900 adults in the North East

- 429,190 apprentices and 175,810 adults in England.

This prominence across the market is why we are legislating through the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill to place duties on independent training providers, alongside other post-16 providers, to co-operate with employer representative bodies in developing Local Skills Improvement Plans, so they can play their part in responding to the skills gaps that the plans identify.