Correspondence Feb. 26 2024
Committee: Liaison Committee (Lords)Found: Letter from the Senior Deputy Speaker to Robert Halfon MP, Minister of State (Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the apprenticeship levy and to grant firms more flexibility to use funds from the levy to skill up their workforce.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training, both for career starters as well as those looking to upskill or retrain.
The success of the levy is enabling the department to invest £2.7 billion in apprenticeships in England in the 2024/25 financial year, and means that 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent over the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. It is important that this funding remains protected to support apprenticeships. The government has no current plans to allow employers to spend the funds available to them on non-apprenticeships training. Allowing employers to use 50% of funds for non-apprenticeship training could create an additional cost of up to £1.5 billion a year. Without additional investment this could reduce apprenticeship starts to 140,000 a year, which would represent an almost 60% decrease on the 2022/23 academic year.
This month the department increased the proportion of the funds that levy-paying employers can transfer from 25% to 50%. This gives levy-paying employers even greater flexibility in how they use the funds available to them while also supporting more apprenticeships in other businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities.
Employers can choose from almost 700 high-quality apprenticeships and have the option of using flexible training models, such as flexi-job apprenticeships and accelerated apprenticeships. Employers can also access other government-funded skills programmes, including T Levels and Skills Bootcamps.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many service sector apprenticeships were available in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes and in all sectors, including the service sector, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
The department has removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium sized enterprises can take on and have cut by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme, supported by £3.2 million of investment each year. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is also promoting apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, which offer great opportunities for those leaving full-time education. In addition, students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) hub and later this year they will be able to apply for apprenticeships on UCAS.
Apprenticeship starts by sector are published as part of the department’s apprenticeship statistics releases. The statistics released also show the number of apprenticeship vacancies published on the department’s Find an Apprenticeship service. These statistics are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships#explore-data-and-files.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support service sector apprenticeships.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes and in all sectors, including the service sector, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
The department has removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium sized enterprises can take on and have cut by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme, supported by £3.2 million of investment each year. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is also promoting apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, including Level 2 Hospitality Team Member, which offer great opportunities for those leaving full-time education. In addition, students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) hub and later this year they will be able to apply for apprenticeships on UCAS.
Apprenticeship starts by sector are published as part of the department’s apprenticeship statistics releases. The statistics released also show the number of apprenticeship vacancies published on the department’s Find an Apprenticeship service. These statistics are accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships#explore-data-and-files.
Apr. 10 2024
Source Page: Apprenticeships: May 2024Found: Apprenticeships: May 2024
Feb. 27 2024
Source Page: Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2024 speechFound: Building an Apprenticeships Nation Building an Apprenticeships Nation means integrating apprenticeships
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage take up of degree-level apprenticeships.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Degree-level apprenticeships (Levels 6 and 7) provide people with high-quality training and are important in supporting productivity, social mobility and widening participation in higher education and employment. There are now over 170 degree-level apprenticeships available in exciting occupations such as Doctor and Nuclear Scientist. More broadly, the department has now developed nearly 700 high-quality apprenticeship standards with employers, so today nearly 70% of occupations are available via an apprenticeship.
The department has seen year-on-year growth of degree-level apprenticeships, with 229,970 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. The department want to further accelerate the growth of degree level apprenticeships and are providing an additional £40 million over two financial years to support providers expand their offers, improving access to young people and disadvantaged groups. The department has also teamed up with UCAS so that students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their service, putting apprenticeships on an equal footing with traditional academic routes, and continuing outreach work in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme.
Mar. 13 2024
Source Page: Apprenticeships: April 2024Found: Apprenticeships: April 2024
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage people to undertake a higher level apprenticeship on completion of an apprenticeship.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Higher-level apprenticeships offer great opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, from those starting out in their career to those looking to upskill or retrain, with over 320 apprenticeship standards at Levels 4 to 7.
Each apprenticeship standard covers a distinct occupation. Although learners do not need to have completed an apprenticeship at a lower level to start a higher-level apprenticeship, the department is continuing to promote career progression through apprenticeships.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education publishes occupational maps which show how apprenticeships and technical education support progression in each sector. This is available at: https://occupational-maps.instituteforapprenticeships.org/.
To help more people benefit from the high-quality training that higher-level apprenticeships offer, the department is investing £40 million over the next two years to expand degree apprenticeships and students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their UCAS Hub alongside undergraduate courses.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to encourage young people to undertake a foundation apprenticeship on leaving school.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Apprenticeships offer brilliant opportunities for school leavers, with over 690 high-quality apprenticeship standards available across all sectors of the economy and at all levels, including 368 standards at levels 2 and 3. The department has a range of work underway to promote and support young people into apprenticeships, and it is encouraging to see that starts by under-19s so far this academic year have increased by 6% on the same period last year.
Students can now see apprenticeship vacancies on their UCAS Hub, and our Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign is promoting apprenticeships at levels 2 and 3 which offer great opportunities for those looking for their first role after leaving full-time education. The department also continues to invest around £3.2 million annually in the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme which ensures students are aware of the benefits of apprenticeships, with over 620,000 student interactions across 2,300 schools and further education colleges in the 2022/23 academic year.
In addition, the department continues to pay £1,000 to employers and providers when they take on apprentices aged 16-18, and the care leavers bursary has tripled to £3,000 to help even more young people to access and complete apprenticeships.