Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many training providers with no previous history of delivering apprenticeships were included on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers announced on 14 March.

More than 1,700 providers made it onto the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (the Register) in the first round – three quarters of those who applied – including 173 FE colleges. There were no further education colleges rated outstanding by Ofsted that were not included, however seventeen colleges that were rated good overall by Ofsted were not included on the basis that they failed to meet the broader set of criteria against which all applicants were assessed. To ensure excellence for apprenticeship provision we cannot compromise on our commitment to rigorous quality tests for apprenticeship training.

We have already re-opened the Register for new applications and to allow those who were unsuccessful to reapply. We will announce the results by the end of May. We have provided detailed feedback to providers who were not successful in their initial application, to help them understand what they need to do to be successful in the future.

The new Register opens up the current apprenticeship market to wider competition. We have sought to encourage new providers to come forward who do not have a tradition of delivering apprenticeships. There are 451 organisations that we consider to have no previous history of delivering apprenticeships. These include Universities, charities, public sector bodies, employers and other private/commercial providers. This will give employers a wider choice of providers and create a broader range of training for individual apprentices to benefit from.