Apprentices: Care Leavers

(asked on 16th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that care leavers' entitlement to a local authority bursary when attending university is extended to care leavers undertaking an apprenticeship.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Agnew of Oulton
This question was answered on 30th January 2018

Care leavers do not generally have access to the family support networks that benefit other young people. It is therefore important that local and central government provide additional support to care leavers in their role as corporate parents. The cross-government care leaver strategy - ‘Keep on Caring’ (see attached), sets out the additional support the state provides to help care leavers achieve better outcomes.

It is important to distinguish between higher education and apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are paid jobs with training, allowing apprentices to earn while they learn. Apprentices are not required to pay for their training or assessment.

The government is creating an apprenticeship system that is available to a wide range of people, including those with experience of care. As we continue to reform the apprenticeships system we will keep our funding for apprentices with additional needs under review.

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