Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to increase the proportion of disabled people participating in apprenticeships.
Answered by Nick Boles
Thousands of disabled people have benefitted from apprenticeships. In 2014/15, 44,090 of those starting an apprenticeship declared a disability or learning difficulty (LDD). This compares with 26,390 in 2009/10.
To provide an incentive to employers to offer more opportunities, apprenticeship training for 16-18 year olds is fully funded by Government. Government also fully funds apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Apprentices aged 19 to 24 without an EHC Plan, who have a learning difficulty and/or disability can benefit from additional funding through Learning Support.
Advice is also available to help employers and training providers understand disabilities and how to better support disabled apprentices. We have funded NIACE to produce an employer toolkit http://www.employer-toolkit.org.uk/ for employers that want to develop a more inclusive and accessible apprenticeship offer.
An Apprenticeships Equality and Diversity Advisory group helps government understand and address any apprenticeship equality and diversity issues in order to reduce barriers and make apprenticeships as inclusive as possible.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will fund training costs of disabled apprentices aged 18 to 24 in accordance with the recommendations of Creating an inclusive apprenticeship offer, commissioned by the Apprenticeships Unit and published in January 2012.
Answered by Nick Boles
Apprenticeship training for 16-18 year olds is fully funded by Government to provide an incentive to employers. Government also fully funds apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Apprentices aged 19 to 24 without an EHC Plan, who have a learning difficulty and/or disability can be supported through Learning Support.
Learning Support is provided to help providers to work flexibly and provide support activity to meet the learning needs of their apprentices who have an identified learning difficulty and/or disability. Learning Support also provides funding to meet the cost of reasonable adjustments as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that disabled people are supported to participate in apprenticeship schemes.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Apprenticeships are paid jobs with substantial training. Whilst we would not want to interfere in employers’ recruitment decisions, we believe that there is more that can be done to ensure that people from a diverse range of backgrounds are in the best possible place to apply for and secure an apprenticeship.
The Apprenticeships Equality and Diversity Advisory Group helps the Government to understand and address any apprenticeship equality and diversity issues in order to reduce barriers and make apprenticeships as inclusive as possible.
Apprentices with a learning difficulty or disability can apply for Access to Work funding for reasonable adjustments in the workplace, and individuals whose circumstances mean they were not able to undertake an apprenticeship before their 19th birthday may qualify for enhanced funding as long as they start an apprenticeship before their 24th birthday.
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) has also produced an employer toolkit including resources and links to help employers of disabled apprentices.
In 2012 Government published the findings from Peter Little OBE’s detailed review of the inclusiveness of apprenticeships for people with learning difficulties or disabilities. The National Apprenticeship Service is working with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department for Education (DfE) to meet the recommendations made by this report, which can be viewed here:
Apprenticeships are accessible - in 2013/14, 38,170 people who declared a disability or learning difficulty started an apprenticeship.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what guidance his Department gives to apprenticeship providers on supporting apprentices with dyslexia.
Answered by Nick Boles
Apprenticeships are covered by the Equality Act 2010, therefore employers and providers are required to make reasonable adjustments. Assessment centres (for example colleges) are responsible for ensuring that they understand and apply access arrangements.
Ofqual provides guidance for awarding organisations in England on reasonable adjustment. The Joint Council of Qualifications publishes arrangements annually on special considerations and adjustments. The current version has a number of examples of how to apply arrangements to learners with dyslexia.
The Education and Training Foundation provides guidance for training providers, including advice on supporting apprentices with dyslexia. This can be found in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) section of the Excellence Gateway on the Education and Training Foundation website http://send.excellencegateway.org.uk/.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of apprentices who failed to complete their training in the last five years were apprentices with dyslexia.
Answered by Nick Boles
We use success rates to show the proportion of learners who start an apprenticeship and go on to achieve it. Success rates are published as percentages rather than volumes. This information by self-declared learning difficulty is published in the Statistical First Release Equality and Diversity tables (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-equality-and-diversity). The tables cover the five years between 2008/09 and 2012/13, when the success rate for the cohort of apprentices with dyslexia was 68.4%. We will publish data for 2013/14 in the near future.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what data his Department collects on the (a) number of apprenticeship providers which provide support to apprentices who have been assessed as dyslexic and (b) quality of that support.
Answered by Nick Boles
Information on the number of providers that support apprentices who have self-declared a learning difficulty, including dyslexia, is collected through the Individualised Learner Record. We publish data showing the proportion of further education learners who have self-declared a learning difficulty or disability for individual providers in a supplementary table to our Statistical First Release: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-local-authority-tables. We do not publish this information specifically for apprentices or broken down to the individual type of learning difficulty or disability.
Ofsted inspects apprenticeship providers and reports on overall performance including equality and diversity. The Common Inspection Framework requires inspectors to pay particular attention to the outcomes for disabled children and learners and those who have special educational needs. In addition, inspectors evaluate the extent to which leaders, managers and governors actively promote equality and diversity, tackle bullying and discrimination and narrow any gaps in achievement between different groups of children and learners.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what data his Department collects on the number of apprentices who have dyslexia.
Answered by Nick Boles
Information on Apprenticeship participation and success rates by individuals with dyslexia is collected through the Individualised Learner Record and is published in the Equality and Diversity tables (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-equality-and-diversity alongside the Statistical First Release (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/learner-participation-outcomes-and-level-of-highest-qualification-held).
Learning Difficulties, including dyslexia, are based on self-declaration by the learner.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Report <i>Is Britain fairer?</i>, particularly with regard to the employment and earnings prospects of young people aged 16 to 24.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is an independent body, and its report “Is Britain Fairer?” covers a five-year period spanning the Labour and Coalition governments. We welcome the positive areas of progress and note the key challenges to which it refers. The information in the report will be used by the EHRC to help develop its next strategic plan, covering the period 2016-19.
Giving young people the skills that businesses need is important. That is why our work to ensure 3 million apprenticeship starts in England over this Parliament is crucial.
According to London Economics, the lifetime benefits associated with the acquisition of Apprenticeships at Level 2 and 3 are very significant, standing at between £48,000 and £74,000 for Level 2 and between £77,000 and £117,000 for Level 3 Apprenticeships.
The latest data shows that 89% of apprentices are satisfied with their apprenticeship; 85% of apprentices said their ability to do the job had improved, and 83% of apprentices said their career prospects had improved.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in its report, Is Britain Fairer, published in October 2015, that up to 2013 there was a decline in both earnings and full-time employment for younger workers, despite them being more likely to be better qualified than previous generations.
Answered by Nick Boles
Since 2013 employment has risen by over a million people and the UK’s employment rate is at a record high. The Government is creating employment opportunities for all age groups. Since the first quarter of 2010, youth unemployment has fallen and 229,000 more young people are in employment.
Skills remain important for delivering better employment outcomes for younger workers. The lifetime benefits to apprentices are between £48,000 and £74,000 for Level 2 and between £77,000 and £117,000 for Level 3 Apprenticeships. The average graduate of higher education will earn over £100,000 more over their lifetime than a similar individual who completed their education with 2 or more A levels. The Government is therefore ensuring further and higher education providers are more responsive to the needs of employers, and that young people get the rights skills for the job market.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure that ethnic minority applicants for an apprenticeship are fairly treated; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Boles
Apprentices are real jobs and as such, employers who wish to recruit an apprentice have to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and other legislation, as they would when recruiting any other employee. The legislation seeks to prevent unfair discrimination on a number of grounds including race.
The Institute for Employment Studies carried out a review of ethnicity, gender and apprenticeships for the Skills Funding Agency in 2013. It explored employer practices for evidence of bias and made a number of recommendations many of which are being implemented.
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills has also recently established an apprenticeship equality advisory group to help increase apprenticeship diversity.