Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the value was of enhanced learning credits that expired in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence’s Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) Scheme promotes lifelong learning amongst members of the Armed Forces. The scheme provides financial support in each of a maximum of three separate Financial Years (FY) for higher level learning of a nationally recognised qualification at Level 3 or above on the Recognised Qualification Framework or, if pursued overseas, an approved international equivalent qualification with an approved learning provider.
A total of 27,543 ELC registered Service personnel reached their Scheme expiry date in FY 2022-23. Out of this number, 2,741 fully utilised their entitlement. The requested information on the value of expired ELC credits is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost; eligibility for lower and higher tier awards varies by time in service, and personnel may choose to use some (or none) of their three possible claims, and/or not claim their full entitlement.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the education system remains globally competitive.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is dedicated to improving the education system to improve outcomes for children and young people, and this will help maintain its global competitiveness.
A key part of this is our relentless focus on driving up education standards to deliver better outcomes. In 2023, primary aged children in England came 4th out of 43 countries which tested pupils of the same age, in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, making them the best in the western world at reading. In 2019, primary aged pupils in England achieved their highest ever score in mathematics in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a significant improvement compared to 2015.
At secondary level, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 results showed that 15-year-olds in England performed above the OECD averages for reading, mathematics, and science. Since 2009, 15-year-olds in England have climbed 10 places in reading and mathematics.
This government is committed to creating a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality, and fit for the future. Our reforms are strengthening higher and further education to help more people get good jobs and upskill and retrain throughout their lives; and to improve national productivity. This includes increasing opportunities for people to develop higher technical skills through T Levels, Apprenticeship Standards, Skills Bootcamps, or Higher Technical Qualifications. All of which have been developed hand in glove with thousands of employers and introduced under this government.
From 2025, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will transform access to further and higher education, offering all adults the equivalent of four years’ worth of student loans to use flexibly on quality education training over their lifetime. The department will introduce the Advanced British Standard (ABS) for 16-19 year-olds, a new Baccalaureate-style qualification that takes the best of A levels and T Levels and brings them together into a single qualification.
The ABS will increase the number of taught hours by an extra 15% for most 16-19 students, increasing the average number of subjects students take and ensuring that all students continue to study mathematics and English. This will give students greater breadth of knowledge and bring us more in line with other countries. The department will make an initial downpayment now to support the ABS, which will focus on recruiting and retaining teachers in shortage subjects and providing better resources for teachers and pupils.
Since 2010, the department has driven up standards in education, and created more opportunities to gain new skills that businesses truly value. So whatever age or stage of life people are at they can access high-quality opportunities to get ahead in their chosen career.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to ensure a high standard of primary religious education training in (a) Initial Teacher Training and (b) early career teacher induction.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Religious education (RE) is an essential part of a school’s curriculum and remains a compulsory subject in all state funded schools, including academies, to all pupils up to the age of 18. RE develops an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, as well as serving to inform their own values and behaviour.
The department is offering a £10,000 bursary for RE trainee teachers starting Initial Teacher Training courses in the 2024/25 academic year. The department has published this information on the ‘Get Into Teaching’ website and will be marketing the offer to prospective teachers through other channels.
The mandatory Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) sets out a core minimum entitlement for all trainees of what should be covered during their teacher training. While all ITT courses must encompass the CCF in full, it remains for accredited ITT providers to design their full course curricula in a way that is appropriate to the needs of trainees and for the subject, phase, and age range that the trainees will be teaching, which for some ITT courses, would include religious education training.
To be awarded Qualified Teacher Status, trainee teachers must demonstrate that they satisfy all of the Teaching Standards at the appropriate level, including Part Two of the standards, which requires all teachers to demonstrate consistently high standards of personal and professional behaviour.
The department has publicly committed to reviewing the ITT CCF and Early Career Framework (ECF) alongside each other. Building on lessons learned from the first few years of CCF implementation and ECF delivery, the department plans to revise the CCF and ECF into a more closely combined framework, or set of frameworks, which cover the first three years or more at the start of a teacher’s career articulating what trainee and new teachers need to know and need to know how to do.
This underpins a joined-up sequence of training and development over at least the first three years of new teachers’ careers to support them at the start of their new career. The department aims to ensure that what new teachers learn across these early years of their career delivers continuous, coherent and complementary learning for all trainees and new teachers, and provides the confidence and skills for a lifelong career in teaching.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to increase the availability of Religious Education teacher training courses.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Religious education (RE) is an essential part of a school’s curriculum and remains a compulsory subject in all state funded schools, including academies, to all pupils up to the age of 18. RE develops an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, as well as serving to inform their own values and behaviour.
The department is offering a £10,000 bursary for RE trainee teachers starting Initial Teacher Training courses in the 2024/25 academic year. The department has published this information on the ‘Get Into Teaching’ website and will be marketing the offer to prospective teachers through other channels.
The mandatory Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) sets out a core minimum entitlement for all trainees of what should be covered during their teacher training. While all ITT courses must encompass the CCF in full, it remains for accredited ITT providers to design their full course curricula in a way that is appropriate to the needs of trainees and for the subject, phase, and age range that the trainees will be teaching, which for some ITT courses, would include religious education training.
To be awarded Qualified Teacher Status, trainee teachers must demonstrate that they satisfy all of the Teaching Standards at the appropriate level, including Part Two of the standards, which requires all teachers to demonstrate consistently high standards of personal and professional behaviour.
The department has publicly committed to reviewing the ITT CCF and Early Career Framework (ECF) alongside each other. Building on lessons learned from the first few years of CCF implementation and ECF delivery, the department plans to revise the CCF and ECF into a more closely combined framework, or set of frameworks, which cover the first three years or more at the start of a teacher’s career articulating what trainee and new teachers need to know and need to know how to do.
This underpins a joined-up sequence of training and development over at least the first three years of new teachers’ careers to support them at the start of their new career. The department aims to ensure that what new teachers learn across these early years of their career delivers continuous, coherent and complementary learning for all trainees and new teachers, and provides the confidence and skills for a lifelong career in teaching.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has an assessment of the equity of opportunity of (a) the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee and (b) other upskilling initiatives for people on zero hours contracts.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department’s skills reforms aim to provide a ladder of opportunity for everyone to succeed, regardless of their background. The ladder has two pillars of reform: opportunities and social justice, which ensure equal opportunities and access to skills and education for all, regardless of background; and strengthening higher and further education, which is strengthening the post-16 system to foster exceptional teaching, high quality provision, well managed institutions, and value for money spending.
The government has a range of skills offers for adults available, including those on zero hours contracts including:
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to develop the necessary workforce skills to fulfil their plans for safe adoption of artificial intelligence across the UK economy.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to creating a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality, and fit for the future. We will continue our work to ensure that the education system is able to adapt to deliver upskilling and to provide the skills that learners need for the workplaces of the future, including jobs that will be impacted by, or require the use of, artificial intelligence. This includes increasing opportunities for people to develop higher technical skills through T Levels, Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps, and Higher Technical Qualifications, as well as enabling access to modular learning through the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
The department is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) skills at all stages of education, including higher education. We are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver new postgraduate AI and data science conversion courses to boost skills and diversity in AI jobs. The government is also investing £117 million in doctoral training for AI researchers.
The department is also working with other government departments through the UK Science and Technology Framework to deliver talent and skills for five critical technologies, including AI.
This year, the department’s Unit for Future Skills is developing a Skills Dashboard to understand the supply and demand of science, technology, engineering, and maths skills to develop critical technologies like AI and quantum. This data will support improved access to relevant training.
Digital and computing skills will play an important role for individuals developing and using AI in the future workforce. The department is harnessing government and external expertise through the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce to increase the number of people taking digital and computing qualifications and attract a diverse range of individuals into digital jobs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potentiual role of (a) further education colleges and (b) universities in tackling the level of inequality of educational outcomes for children in the North of England.
Answered by Robert Halfon
This government is focused on levelling up opportunity so that every young person, regardless of their background or geographic location, can get the skills and training needed to secure rewarding, well-paid jobs and move up the ladder of opportunity.
To help improve people’s lives and boost the economy, the government’s skills mission sets out an ambition for 200,000 more people to complete high-quality training in England each year by 2030. This includes 80,000 more people completing courses in areas of England with the lowest skills levels.
The department wants to make sure that it is raising skill levels in the places where they are lowest, so that more people have the skills they need to get good jobs. Skills are a crucial driver of economic disparities between people and places. Boosting skills improves human capital and is a clear way to improve the earnings potential and life chances of people who have already left school.
This government has built a new skills system from the ground up, recognising that skills are crucial in driving long-term economic growth and is taking forward major reforms set out in the Skills for Jobs White Paper: delivering T Levels, boosting apprenticeships, approving Higher Technical Qualifications, rolling out Skills Bootcamps, and introducing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement from 2025. The paper is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-for-jobs-lifelong-learning-for-opportunity-and-growth.
The department would like to see more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds accessing apprenticeships which are so crucial in driving social mobility. This is why £1,000 has been provided to both employers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19- to 24-year-old apprentices who have an Education, Health and Care Plan. Apprentices that are under the age of 25 that have been in local authority care can also claim a bursary of £3,000.
In November 2021, the department issued guidance to the Office for Students, asking it to refocus the access and participation regime to create a system that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds throughout their education.
Prior attainment is a key determinant of successful participation in higher education. That is why the department has asked universities to take on a more direct role in driving up the standards in schools. The department wants universities to:
The department is providing £30 million of funding to Uni Connect through the Strategic Priorities (SP) Grant for 2023/24. Uni Connect delivers targeted interventions and support aimed at increasing the number of young people from under represented areas going into further and higher education by bringing together universities, colleges and local partners.
There are several Uni Connect partnerships throughout the North of England, including Inspiring Choices in York. So far, over one million young people from underrepresented groups have engaged with the Uni Connect programme.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to improve its digital services to provide better (a) accessibility and (b) user experience for the public.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to ensuring that it meets the requirements of the Public Sector Websites and Applications Regulations. The Department has published guidance on how to implement accessibility standards and understand conformance. The Department has an accessibility support team that helps delivery teams to understand and raise awareness of accessibility. The Department plans to create a new standard for accessibility and a framework for compliance, governance and supporting processes.
The Department is committed to improving the user experience for people who interact with its data, digital and technology services. The Department wants to make sure that its services are accessible, friendly, and seamless and is working towards creating smoother journeys for users. User Centred Design practices are used to design and test improvements to its digital services.
The Department is working towards all its citizen facing services using GOV.UK’s One Login for identity management, where possible, so that users only need to remember one login to use government services.
Through a commitment made in Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth, published in January 2021, the Department is launching a new website to showcase all the different skills offers available in one place. This single digital starting point will make it easier for users to search for and compare opportunities that suit them.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential role of (a) further education colleges and (b) universities in tackling the level of inequality of educational outcomes for children in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Spreading opportunity is a top priority for this government. In education, ability is evenly spread but opportunity is not. We need to reduce the dependency of people’s education and skills outcomes on where they live by ensuring that in every area, children can access excellent schools, progress to high quality technical and higher education, and go into good jobs.
This government is focused on levelling up opportunities so that every young person, regardless of their background or geographic location, can get the skills and training needed to secure rewarding, well-paid jobs and move up the ladder of opportunity.
To help improve people’s lives and boost the economy, the government’s skills mission sets out an ambition for 200,000 more people to complete high quality training in England each year by 2030. This includes 80,000 more people completing courses in areas of England with the lowest skills levels.
We want to make sure we are raising skill levels in the places where they are the lowest, so that more people have the skills they need to get good jobs.
Skills are a crucial driver of economic disparities between people and places. Boosting skills improves human capital and is a clear way to improve the earnings potential and life chances of people who have already left school.
This government has built a new skills system from the ground up as we recognise that skills are crucial in driving long-term economic growth and is taking forward major reforms set out in the Skills for Jobs White Paper: delivering T Levels, boosting apprenticeships, approving Higher Technical Qualifications, rolling out Skills Bootcamps, and introducing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement from 2025.
In November 2021, we issued guidance to the Office for Students, asking it to refocus the access and participation regime to create a system that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds throughout their education.
Prior attainment is a key determinant of successful participation in HE. That is why we have asked universities to take on a more direct role in driving up the standards in schools. The department wants universities to:
The department is funding Uni Connect through the Strategic Priorities Grant at £30 million for 2023/24. Uni Connect delivers targeted interventions and support aimed at increasing the number of young people from under-represented areas going into FE and HE by bringing together universities, colleges and local partners.
There are three Uni Connect partnerships in London; Access HE works with under-represented young people in North London, including those from Enfield.
So far over one million young people from underrepresented groups have engaged with the Uni Connect programme.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the adoption of AI technologies in business does not lead to the loss of employment opportunities.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The spread of AI across all sectors of society and the economy presents a huge economic opportunity for the UK, as well as posing significant challenges to the contemporary world of work, including through changing the nature of work or the automation of some tasks.
AI has the potential to be a net creator of jobs and have a positive impact on economic growth - the World Economic Forum concluded in October 2020 that while AI would likely take away 85 million jobs globally by 2025, it is also likely to generate 97 million new jobs in areas such as data, machine learning and digital marketing. More broadly, AI in the workplace has the potential to free workers from monotonous tasks like inputting data or filling out paperwork, allowing them to spend more time on creative and meaningful activities.
By increasing resilience, productivity, growth and innovation in the economy, the Government is taking action to make sure the workforce can take advantage of the potential of AI. This will be enabled through the government's focus on ensuring that the system can adapt to deliver upskilling, reskilling and the appropriate skills that learners need for the AI-enabled workplaces of the future.
For example, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology delivers a range of digital skills provision to support people to enter the tech workforce, including through the AI Conversion Course programme. The Department for Education is working with key partners and stakeholders to better understand the impact and opportunity of AI on skills requirements and education delivery and has put out a call for evidence to this effect. The Lifelong Loan Entitlement, due to launch by 2025, will ensure the UK is the first country in the world to have a fully scaled lifelong learning system, allowing for the upskilling and reskilling required by an ever changing jobs market.
Whilst we want to best harness the growth potential of AI, this should not be at the expense of employment rights and protections for workers – on which this Government has a strong record. Our AI Regulation White Paper, published in March, set out our plans to drive responsible and safe innovation. Where AI might challenge someone’s human rights in the workplace, the UK has a strong system of legislation and enforcement of these protections, using both state and individual enforcement through specialist labour tribunals.
And where people do face disruption to the sector they work within, the Department for Work and Pensions has a wide range of support available, which will complement skills provision, and provide routes for job hunters including to access the higher-skilled, higher-paid jobs that AI creates.