Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Civil Service Apprenticeships

Thursday 23 September 2021 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The civil service published its apprenticeship strategy on 29 April 2021 focusing on quality training
  • Andrew Jones congratulated the Minister on his appointment and highlighted the importance of opening the civil service to fresh ideas and skills through apprenticeships
  • The new declaration on government reform focuses on new entry routes for professionals from outside Government and encourages new entrants with specific high-demand skills

Questions & Answers

Q1 Andrew Jones Con
Context

N/A

Question

What steps he is taking to improve the quality of civil service apprenticeships.

Answer from Steve Barclay

The civil service published its apprenticeship strategy on 29 April 2021, and in this strategy we focus not just on the numbers but on the quality of training on offer to ensure that Departments are better equipped to nurture talent in-house and to plug skill and capability gaps.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not specify concrete steps or details about how quality is being improved beyond referencing a strategy document.

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Q2 Andrew Jones Con
Context

The question builds on the initial query, focusing on how government reforms will impact the opening of civil service to fresh ideas through apprenticeships.

Question

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his appointment. It is important to the Government that we build back better from the pandemic, which means opening up the civil service to fresh ideas, often through apprenticeships, and fresh skills. How will the new declaration on government reform achieve exactly that?

Answer from Steve Barclay

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and the declaration particularly focuses on new entry routes for professionals from outside Government, encourages new entrants with specific high-demand skills, particularly scientists, and develops a pipeline of secondments into and out of the civil service, very much addressing the point he rightly highlights.

Answered
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