HC Deb 18 November 2003 vol 413 cc781-2W
Rob Marris

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether(a) his Department and (b) its agencies carry out exit surveys with those who (i) complete and (ii) do not complete modern apprenticeships. [136975]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

[holding answer 17 November 2003]DfES place the responsibility for planning and managing Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) on the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Both the Department and LSC place great importance on the role of learner surveys in quality strategies and improvement. The LSC have been running a learner satisfaction survey since early 2002 and the first report was published in November 2002. The main purpose of the survey is to interview those who are still in learning; however, it does cover some learners who have recently completed their course and also a small number who left early.

Both the Department and the LSC are also aware of the importance of labour market destination data. Some feasibility work has recently been concluded and DfES and LSC along with ALI and Ofsted will shortly be publishing proposals as to how best to implement the recommendations.

Rob Marris

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of successfully completed modern apprenticeships in(a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03 were provided by (i) further education colleges, (ii) private training providers and (iii) employers. [136976]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

[holding answer 17 November 2003]The information requested is not available. The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) published framework completion rates for modern apprenticeship programmes as a whole in July 2003. Current apprenticeships training is delivered in a variety of different ways, including collaboration between various providers and so is not always an exclusive relationship between one provider and one apprentice–hence it is not possible to estimate the proportion of modern apprenticeships successfully completed through different providers.

Rob Marris

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of young people undertaking a modern apprenticeship in(a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03 had all or part of their training provided by a further education college. [136979]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

[holding answer 17 November 2003]The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) publish figures on modern apprenticeships learner volumes within figures for work-based learning as a whole. They estimate that around 20 per cent. of modern apprenticeships were delivered directly through further education colleges in 2002/03. This figure excludes cases where other training providers for work-based learning have sub-contracted their delivery through further education colleges.