To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding they plan to provide for companies to continue to offer apprenticeship training during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered on
2 October 2020
Apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow. In the 2020/21 financial year, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England will remain around £2.5 billion – double the number spent in the 2010/11 financial year. The government is committed to ensuring people of all ages can continue to benefit from the high-quality training that an apprenticeship offers. Through our ‘Plan for Jobs’, a total of £1.6 billion is to be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships.
To help support employers to offer new apprenticeships, employers are now able to claim £2,000 for every new apprentice they hire under the age of 25 between 1 August 2020 and 31 January 2021, and £1,500 for those 25 and over. The department have introduced flexibilities to enable apprentices to continue to train during the COVID-19 outbreak and we encourage employers to take advantage of these flexibilities and the new payments.