The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Morgan of Huyton on 2016-03-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to promote higher apprenticeships to inform pupils currently in key stage 3 of their future options.
Lord Nash
Higher apprenticeships are widening access to the professions, providing the higher level technical skills employers need to improve productivity and giving young people who do not go to university an equally valid career route.
The government is taking a number of steps to ensure that apprenticeship opportunities at all levels are widely understood by young people from a young age so that they can make better informed decisions at key transition points. Schools have a legal duty to secure independent careers guidance for all pupils from year 8 onwards. This must include information on apprenticeships. Statutory guidance which underpins the duty is clear that schools should cooperate with other providers to ensure that young people are aware of the full range of education and training options available to them. The government will be launching a new apprenticeships campaign in May aimed at young people, their influencers and employers – it builds on the previous successful Get In Go Far campaign.
The government is funding The Careers & Enterprise Company to roll out and manage its Enterprise Adviser Network, which was launched in September 2015. This is a network of employer volunteers coordinated by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) who are working in schools and colleges to support their careers and enterprise strategies and increase the number and effectiveness of employer-school interactions.
Apprenticeships take-up is one of the criteria that LEPs are using to prioritise this support and advisers will be helping schools with their activity to provide well-informed information on apprenticeships. However, the range of information that young people receive remains too narrow and we want to go further. The government intends to bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity that will require schools to allow other education and training providers the opportunity to talk to pupils about their offer on school premises. Schools will be required by law to collaborate with colleges, university technical colleges and other training providers, including apprenticeship providers, in putting those arrangements in place. This will ensure that young people hear much more consistently about the merits of alternatives to academic and school-based routes and are aware of all the routes to higher skills and into the workplace.
