Stuart Anderson said: "I want to ensure people of all ages can access high-quality training and education opportunities as well as personalised careers advice that addresses skills gaps, boosts productivity, and delivers sustainable economies and vibrant communities. The Government is investing a total of £3.8 billion in skills in England by 2024-25 so everyone, regardless of background or geographic location, can get the skills and training needed to secure rewarding, well-paid jobs and move up the ladder of opportunity. There are over 4.1 million more people in work since 2010, including 437,000 fewer unemployed young people. There are more than 33.1 million people in work in the UK, up by 4.1 million since 2010, and the employment rate is estimated at 75.0 per cent, 4.8 percentage points higher than in 2010. Yet, there is more to do so that everyone benefits. Here, you will find out more about the latest help available."
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships provide people of all backgrounds with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start, or progress in, an exciting career. They are available for individuals over the age of 16 and combines on the job training with study. Over 70 per cent of careers are now accessible via an apprenticeship. Between 2010 and 2023, over 5.3 million apprenticeships have been created across England - including 7,190 in our constituency. The Government is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 to support employers of all sizes grow their apprenticeships workforce. There are now high-quality apprenticeship routes into more than 680 occupations from entry level right through to masters level, with over 5,000 employers involved in their development.
Youth Offer
The Youth Offer is a specialist support programme which gives 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit extra help to find and secure work including: Additional time with a Work Coach, who provides intensive support and advice from interview coaching to CV skills. Access to Youth Hubs, which share space with partners including colleges, charities, and training providers so young people can access training, job opportunities and wellbeing services – all in one location. Youth Employability Coaches who can help those with more serious and complex barriers to work, such as addiction problems or finding somewhere permanent to live. These coaches can provide intensive support before, during and after someone has found work. In September 2023, the Government expanded the Youth Offer to over 30,000 economically inactive young people who were previously ineligible, as part of its efforts to help thousands more take advantage of the health benefits work can provide. The Youth Offer has helped reduce youth unemployment to historically low levels. Youth unemployment has nearly halved since 2010 (47%) and latest figures show there were 33,000 fewer unemployed young people compared to pre-pandemic levels. The UK has the second lowest rate of economic inactivity among young people in the G7.
T-Levels
Introduced in 2020, T Levels are our flagship two-year technical qualifications for learners aged 16 to 19 in England who have finished their GCSEs. Over 16,000 students started a T Level course from September 2023 – almost as many students as in the first three cohorts combined. Over 30,000 students have enrolled in a T Level since 2020, with an overall pass rate of over 90% for students receiving their results in summer 2023. Developed with employers so the content meets the needs of industry, they offer a mixture of practical and knowledge-based learning at a school or college and on-the-job experience through an industry placement of at least 315 hours – approximately 45 days. These two-year, technical qualifications are designed with relevant employers, and are equivalent in size to three A-Levels. provider numbers are up 55% to over 250, with many more due to start delivery in September 2024. 2023 saw the introduction of two more T Level routes (Legal Services and Agriculture, Land Management and Production). In September 2024 T Levels in Media, Broadcast and Production; Craft and Design; and Animal Care and Management are being rolled out, taking the number on offer across the country to 21. To support the continued expansion of new and existing T Levels we recently delivered another round of equipment funding, taking the total amount of capital funding allocated to support T Level delivery to over £500 million since 2020. We have also extended the 10% uplift to T Level per student funding for 24/25.
National Skills Fund
£1.6 billion is being invested through the National Skills Fund across the 2022 to 2025 financial years. In the Spring Budget, the Government announced an extra £63.2 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25. This includes £34.4 million for Skills Bootcamps, helping up to 8,000 more people to benefit from this transformational scheme, with an aim of delivering 64,000 training places from the 2024/25. The Government is also expanding SWAPs, supported by £28.8 million of extra funding to increase the number of places available and make the programme more accessible. This will provide for 80,000 new SWAPs starts in each of the two years.
Skills Bootcamps
Skills Bootcamps were introduced in 2020 to deliver short, free, flexible training courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people aged 19 or over the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. There are now more than 1,000 different Skills Bootcamps available across England in a variety of skill areas including digital, technical, construction, logistics (HGV driving), and skills that support the green economy. 40,040 starts were made in 2022/23. are available These are designed to support local regions and employers to fill in-demand vacancies and increase opportunities open to adults. They have potential to transform the skills landscape for adults and employers through upskilling adults with training that meets key sectoral skills gaps.
Sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAP)
SWAPs provide jobseekers with 6 weeks pre-employment training, vocational training run by a local college or training provider, work experience with an employer, and a job interview with an employer in the sector at the end of the programme. The latest figures, published in April, show that in the last year 98,710 places were delivered - the highest annual figure yet. It brings the total number of SWAP starts since 2021 to 283,930 – in sectors ranging from coding to hospitality, construction, health and social care. Backed by industry giants such as UKHospitality, the British Chamber of Commerce, and Business in the Community, alongside household brands like Amazon, JD Sports and Lidl, jobseekers leave SWAPs work ready as they apply for live job roles. In the last year, 20-24 year olds made the most starts on SWAPs of any age group at 108,090, while 40,670 starts have been made by workers over 50 providing practical experience to kickstart professional careers at any age. SWAPs are available for jobseekers claiming Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Jobseekers or benefit claimants should contact their local Jobcentre Plus for more information about local SWAP opportunities available to them.
Restart Scheme
The Government is expanding its programme of employment support for the long-term unemployed for two years from 2024 across England and Wales. Those who have been on Intensive Work Search for 6 months will now be eligible, as opposed to the previous requirement of 9 months. In addition, work coaches will track the activity of participants to ensure they comply with requirements of the Restart programme.
Essential Skills
Essential skills entitlements provide the opportunity of free study for adults who do not have essential literacy and numeracy skills up to and including Level 2. This allows learners who have not previously attained a GCSE grade 4 or higher to undertake a range of courses fully-funded through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) including GCSEs, Functional Skills, and other relevant qualifications from entry level to Level 2. There are a range of free courses available, including essential digital skills, up to and including level 1; English and/or maths, up to and including level 2; English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), up to, and including level 2; and level 3 courses for jobs, ranging from engineering to health and social care. It is an important stepping-stone for learners who are not ready for formal accredited learning, or who would benefit from learning in a more informal way to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning, particularly for (post-19) disadvantaged learners. It is a flexible and wide-ranging offer, responding to local needs and is delivered in nearly every local authority area across England through adult education services, further education colleges, Institutes of Adult Learning and Community Learning.
Free Courses for Jobs (FCFJ)
Launched in April 2021, the Free Courses for Jobs offer (part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee) gives eligible adults to access over 400 Level 3 qualifications (A level equivalent) for free through colleges and training providers, which can support them to gain higher wages or a better job. This offer allows eligible learners to access a high-value level 3 qualification for free, to gain higher wages and access new job opportunities. This offer includes many qualifications that are delivered flexibly and online. Qualifications are available across the country in a wide range of sectors including engineering, construction, digital, health and social care and accounting. These are ideal for those adults over 50 without a Level 3 qualification looking to retrain or upskill. Eligible adults include adults without a full level 3, adults earning under the National Living Wage annually or unemployed adults, regardless of their prior qualification level. There has been strong uptake of over 45,000 cumulative enrolments between April 2021 and April 2023. The courses available empower adults with the tools they need to secure a better job.
Multiply
Launched in 2022, Multiply is a free maths course for those aged 19 and over. It is available from pre-entry level to Level 2 (GCSE equivalent) and is delivered by local Multiply providers. Up to £270 million is directly available for local areas in England to deliver innovative interventions to improve adult numeracy through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the government's flagship fund for supporting people and places across the UK. Multiply provision is available across the country, with over 67,000 course starts in England since ir began. To get contact details for the lead in your local area, email multiply.localallocations@education.gov.uk.
Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs)
Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are high-quality and job focused level 4 and level 5 qualifications such as Foundation Degrees, Higher National Certificates and Higher National Diploma that are approved and quality marked by the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfATE) as providing the skills employers need. HTQs have been independently tested against standards developed by employers. To support HTQ provision, £115 million in funding has been provided to colleges, universities, IoTs and ITPs to help grow provision across the country. There are 140 providers approved to begin teaching of HTQs in the 2023/24 academic year. From September 2023, learners have been eligible for tuition fee and maintenance loans whether they are studied full or part-time, on the same basis as degree level courses. HTQs will be among the first courses eligible for modular funding when the Lifelong Learning Entitlement launches in the 2025/26 annual year.
Vocational Technical Qualifications (VTQs)
VTQs are practical qualifications for over 16s. They're designed to help you get the skills you need to start your career or go on to higher levels of education. VTQs focus on a specific job or a broad employment area, such as childcare, engineering or IT. They’re usually taken at a school or college. They might be for you if you have a strong interest in working in a particular industry.
Returnerships
In the Spring Budget 2023, the Government announced Returnerships. These will provide a clear route back into work and encourage employers to hire older workers through raising awareness of three different pathways: Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and Sector-Based Work Academies Programmes. They are targeted at adults over the age of 50 who are returning to work or seeking a career change, by bringing together.
Care Leaver Covenant
The Care Leaver Covenant is a voluntary scheme that supports care leavers aged 16 to 25, who left care after their 16th birthday. It allows public, private and voluntary sector organisations to pledge support, including apprenticeships; work experience; and free or discounted goods and services. The Covenant, run by Spectra First, is part of the government’s ambition to improve care leavers’ outcomes so they go on to lead happy and successful lives. Over 400 businesses have signed up and published their offer to care leavers, including John Lewis, Sky, Amazon, and the NHS (which has pledged to offer up to 1,000 employment opportunities for care leavers over the next 3 years). The Government has also increased the care leaver apprenticeship bursary from £1,000 to £3,000.
Supported Internships
Supported internships are personalised study programmes, specifically designed to support young people aged 16-24 with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, to prepare for and transition into sustained, paid employment. In February 2022, the Government announced it is investing up to £18 million over the next three years to build capacity, with the aim of doubling the number of Supported Internships to around 4,500 per year by 2025 to give more young people with an EHC plan the skills to secure and sustain paid employment. In the Spring Budget 2023, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced up to £3 million to pilot extending Supported Internships to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities without EHC plans, to support more young people into employment. Over 700 job coaches will be trained by 2025 to ensure interns receive high-quality support on their work placements.
Access to Work
Access to Work is a demand-led discretionary grant which supports the recruitment and retention of eligible disabled people aged 16 and over in sustainable, paid employment. Access to Work plays an active role in supporting the transitions of young disabled people into employment, by providing individuals with funding for support and adaptations beyond reasonable adjustments to retain employment. Applicants must be employed, self-employed, about to start work, participating in a supported internship/traineeship, taking part in work experience/work trial, or require communication support at interview. Access to Work grants worth up to £66,000 made working easier for nearly 50,000 people last year.
Civil Service Jobs
There are a range of schemes to encourage people from lower all backgrounds to join the civil service including accelerated development schemes like the Fast Stream; Civil Service Commission’s Going Forward into Employment Scheme Life Chances scheme; internships such as the Summer Diversity Internship Programme and Early Diversity Internship programme, for those in their first year at university, providing work experience for people from underrepresented groups including those from lower socio-economic backgrounds; and the Ministry of Justice Graduate Aspiration programme. Work experience placements such as Movement to Work which supports employers to provide work placements that combine employability skills training with on-the-job experience. The Civil Service Care Leaver internship scheme has led to nearly 1,000 care leavers taking up paid jobs across government since the scheme began.
Creative Careers Programme
The Government supports initiatives to boost training and employment opportunities in the arts and creative sectors. The Creative Careers Programme, which aims to address aspirational and informational barriers to entry amongst young people and their carers, has been relaunched with £1 million Government funding. It is an industry-designed and led initiative to raise awareness amongst children and young people of opportunities for work across our world-leading creative industries, including the music sector. Between 2018 and 2020, it showcased creative career pathways to over 115,000 pupils at over 1,500 schools across England. Aimed at young people aged 11-18 from underrepresented backgrounds, it is targeting 77 priority areas across England selected using data from the Government’s education and careers opportunity areas and Levelling Up for Culture priority places.
CyberFirst
The CyberFirst programme, delivered by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), was established in 2015, as part of the UK's £2.6 billion National Cyber Security Strategy, to identify and nurture exceptional young talent from across the UK that could fill the growing skills shortage in cyber security. The programme has great success in inspiring young people to consider a career in technology, starting out as an undergraduate degree bursary scheme that would lead to employment opportunities in cyber security across GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). £4,000 is available for each year of study. Since launch, there have been 1,280 bursary students. In 2023/24, £3.8 million was available for 100 places. The programme now boasts a full programme of events, activities, and courses to build interest in cyber security at every age. This includes the CyberFirst Girls Competition, a range of extra-curricular short courses developed for 11-17 year olds, and interactive, gamified educational content called Cyber Explorers for 11-14 year olds delivered on a free online platform, supporting teaching inside and outside the classroom. The programme has reached over 260,000 students in 2,500 schools across the UK, supported by over 250 industry, government, education, and academic partners. The CyberFirst programme is increasingly changing perceptions of computer science in schools, with engaged schools seeing a 35% increase in the uptake of A-Level Computer Science between 2022 and 2023. This is more than double the national average.
Local Skills Improvement Plans
We are transforming skills through local skills improvement plans, which bring together businesses with further and higher education institutions. The plans are supported by £165 million of funding which helps providers respond to the skills needs identified by local businesses.
Lifelong Learning Entitlement
From the 2025/26 academic year, the Government will introduce the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE). This is a transformation of the student finance system which will provide individuals with a loan entitlement equivalent to four years of post-18 education to use over their working lives (£37,000 in today’s fees). The LLE will be available for both full years of study at Levels 4-6 as well as, for the first time, modules of high-value courses, regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities. Under this flexible system, people will be able to space out their studies and learn at a pace that is right for them, including choosing to build up their qualifications over time, within both further education and higher education providers.
Advanced British Standard (ABS)
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.
Employment Rights
Anyone who needs help determining their employment rights may wish to seek advice from the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (Acas), who deal with questions from employers, individuals, and others about a wide range of employment relations matters and provide free and impartial advice via their website (www.acas.org.uk/), helpline (0300 123 1100) or text relayservice to (18001 0300 123 1100). Acas also provides Early Conciliation to help them resolve/settle their workplace dispute without going to court, where they both accept their involvement and it is hoped that disputes can be resolved before progression to an Employment Tribunal. They have published guidance on handling bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints at work, which you may find useful to read and is available at www.acas.org.uk/discrimination-and-bullying. Ultimately, it is for a person who feels that they have been discriminated against to make a claim against the employer through an Employment Tribunal.
If you are dismissed, you might be entitled to statutory redundancy pay, arrears of pay, compensatory notice pay and holiday pay from the Insolvency Service. Information about your rights, how to apply and how we calculate payments is available on GOV.UK. Information about helping you find work and claim benefits. Factsheet: finding a new job, managing your finances and benefits available to you (PDF, 487 KB, 2 pages)
From Tuesday 1st October, millions of hard working and dedicated workers will benefit from new laws which will ensure they keep 100% of the money they have earned through tips. Introduced through a Private Members’ Bill last year, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act and the statutory Code of Practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips came into force today. These changes will require employers to pass all tips, gratuities, and service charges on to workers, without deductions. If an employer breaks the law and retains tips, a worker will be able to bring a claim to an employment tribunal. Employers in the wrong could be made to pay fines or compensation to staff, with workers able to hold bosses fully accountable through employment tribunals.
The Department for Business and Trade estimates that today’s changes will mean around £200 million will be received by workers that would otherwise have been retained by these employers. The Code of Practice is statutory and has legal effect. This means that it can be introduced as evidence in the Employment Tribunal.
National Careers Service (NCS)
Launched in 2012, the National Careers Service (NCS) is a free, government-funded service which helps individuals to make informed decisions on learning, training and work by providing high-quality, up-to-date and impartial information, advice, and guidance on careers, skills, and the labour market in England. It helps people to realise their full potential by working with individuals to motivate them and develop their understanding of the full range of options open to them, whatever their age, ethnic group, background, or circumstance. This allows working people to identify opportunities and respond to challenges within their employment, to help them enter work, learning, or progress in life. Discussions are tailored to meet the individual needs and circumstances of each customer.
Customers can access the service via the National Careers Service website (https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk), which gives access to a range of digital tools and resources. The website is being regularly updated with a programme of continuous improvement. The content currently includes around 800 job profiles, a course directory, and information on how to find a job, build a CV, and interview techniques. It also offers a helpline to chat to a careers adviser on 0800 100 900.
