Apprentices

(asked on 5th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the underlying causes of the reduction in apprenticeship starts; and what action they intend to take to increase the number of those undertaking apprenticeships.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Agnew of Oulton
This question was answered on 19th July 2018

The government is moving away from old apprenticeship frameworks, which employers said were often not equipping apprentices to do the job, towards new, higher quality apprenticeship standards being designed by employers themselves.

We are making sure that apprenticeships at every level are providing high quality training. Our reforms are making apprenticeships longer, more relevant, with additional off the job training and more rigorous assessments. The 20% off the job training rule, the shift to higher quality standards with a longer average duration, and the drop off in frameworks, have already contributed to a 20% rise in expected apprenticeship training hours over the past year. Apprenticeships on the new apprenticeship standards make up 37% of overall starts, compared to 3% this time last year.

We will continue to work closely with employers to help them take advantage of the reforms in order to grow their apprenticeship programmes and invest in the long-term skills needs of their businesses. We recently introduced the ability for levy-paying employers to transfer up to 10% of their funds to other employers, supporting further growth in starts. We meet regularly and frequently with business groups, giving them the opportunity to let us know what more we can do to make the reforms work better for them.

The department recently published an update on the progress of Apprenticeships reform. Please find a copy attached.

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