Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what provision they have made for the teaching of digital skills and understanding in post-16 education; what assessment they have made of that provision; and whether they have any plans to change it.

We have announced that one of the first three T-Levels will be a digital specialism, to be taught from 2020; and introduced new innovative employer accredited digital degree apprenticeships. We have also announced £20 million towards developing an Institute of Coding to serve as a national focus for improving digital skills provision as well as established Ada, National College for Digital Skills which will seek to train up to 5,000 students in its first seven years for a wide range of digital careers.

To support those who have already left the formal education system, we announced in the March 2017 Digital Strategy that we will fully fund specified basic digital skills training for adults lacking these vital skills which will mirror existing entitlements for adult literacy and numeracy training. In the Budget we announced that digital skills will be an initial focus of the National Retraining Scheme, along with construction. As part of the scheme, the government will invest £30 million to test the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and innovative EdTech in online digital skills courses, so that students can benefit from this emerging technology, wherever they are in the country.

We are also working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the digital skills partnership, seeking to work with industry to identify and fill skills gaps across the UK.