Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 3.28 of English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 Vision, what information his Department holds on the proportion of planned apprenticeships provided by the five per cent club which are expected to be taken up by apprentices with special educational needs or disabilities.

Nick Boles

The Five Per Cent Club has been developed and is run by businesses themselves who commit to making a public declaration to achieve five per cent of their company’s overall UK headcount being an apprentice, a sponsored student or on a graduate programme. We do not hold any information on the proportion of planned apprenticeships provided by employers in the Five Per Cent Club which are expected to be taken up by apprentices with special educational needs or disabilities.

Thousands of disabled people have benefitted from apprenticeships. Of the 499,900 starting an apprenticeship in the 2014/15 academic year, 44,090 of those declared a disability or learning difficulty (LDD).