Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to create more job opportunities for school leavers after Brexit.

We want to ensure our young people have the skills they need to do the well-paid, high-skilled jobs of the future.

We are introducing T levels which will offer a high quality and rigorous technical alternative to academic education, backed by an extra half a billion pounds a year once they are fully up and running, and we are establishing National Colleges and Institutes of Technology to meet higher level technical skills needs.

The Government’s careers strategy, published in December 2017, is an ambitious blueprint for careers guidance for young people and adults. It sets out how the worlds of work and education can come together to support young people, backing the expansion of the Enterprise Adviser Network of senior business volunteers.

This year, funding available for apprenticeships is over £2.5 billion; supporting employers to create apprenticeships for people of all ages, including young people leaving school. There are now over 470 high-quality apprenticeship standards to choose from.

The UK labour market continues to perform strongly, with record levels of employment and record lows in unemployment. An estimated 3.7% of 16-17 year olds (approximately 51,000 young people) are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – this has fallen from 6.0% in 2010 (93,000 young people).