Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase the number of apprenticeship starts in his Department.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all departments as part of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Additionally, a new cross-Government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration, the Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship, will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026.
In addition, Defra has a group apprenticeship strategy with a clear ambition for year-on-year growth in enrolments. There is a focus on areas where apprenticeships can support organisational priorities, career development for existing staff and addressing key skills gaps.
These include:
Following a successful pilot of a Data Protection and Information Governance cohort in 2023, plans for recruitment of a second cohort in early 2026 have begun.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Kickstart placements have been made available in rural areas.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Delivering the Kickstart Scheme at pace has meant an initial concentration on the production of a limited data set. The geographic data we produce does not currently include rural/urban classification. We do hold regional information on jobs made available for young people to apply for and for placements started which can be seen in the table below, as of 3rd June.
As of the 3rd June there have been 138,000 jobs advertised and over 31,000 Kickstart job placement starts in total since the scheme started. The tables below show these figures split by location and the data presented has been rounded according to DWP statistical rounding convention. Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system which has been developed quickly. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.
Location | Jobs Advertised | Total Jobs Started |
East Midlands | 9,270 | 1,700 |
East of England | 10,690 | 2,120 |
London | 28,020 | 6,710 |
North East | 5,760 | 1,420 |
North West | 17,610 | 4,130 |
Scotland | 9,810 | 2,720 |
South East | 15,630 | 3,500 |
South West | 9,930 | 2,170 |
Wales | 7,780 | 1,620 |
West Midlands | 12,840 | 2,800 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 10,630 | 2,310 |
Figures may not add up to provided totals due to rounding. | ||