The department’s Industrial Strategy sets out the interventions we will make to help tackle barriers to employer engagement with the skills system. This includes introducing shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in priority sectors, the introduction of short courses in England, funded through the Growth and Skills Levy from April 2026, and skills packages targeted at skills needed in multiple Industrial Strategy sectors, such as digital, engineering, and the defence sector, in addition to the £625 million construction skills package to train up to 60,000 skilled construction workers across this Parliament.

This investment will be underpinned by deeper employer partnerships, including launching Technical Excellence Colleges to develop pipelines of skilled workers for local businesses.

The Chair of Skills England, in partnership with the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, will explore how employers, individuals and local and central government work together to address national skills needs, to support jobs of the future in the growth-driving sectors, and in particular opportunities for further business engagement and investment into the skills pipeline.

The government supports learners through technical education, including apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps. We are transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners and support the industrial strategy.

From August, the department is reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to eight months. This will enable learners to achieve occupational competence more quickly.

We have confirmed £136 million for Skills Bootcamps across a range of priority sectors in 2025/26 to fund training for over 40,000 learners.

In the 2025/26 academic year, the government will invest around £1.4 billion in the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), including the Free Courses for Jobs Offer. This provides eligible adults with access to high value level 3 qualifications to improve job prospects and earnings.

Currently 62% of the ASF is devolved to nine Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the Greater London Authority who can decide how to make best use of the ASF to meet their local needs.

From September 2026, learners can apply for funding from the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), a new student finance system for courses and modules starting from January 2027. The LLE will help adults upskill or retrain, at a time that is right for them, such as those returning from career breaks.

As an Executive Agency, Skills England will be subject to clear requirements on governance, transparency and accountability as set out by the Cabinet Office and applying across government.

A sponsor Minister within the department will be accountable to Parliament on all matters concerning Skills England, including the policy framework within which it operates, ensuring it meets its strategic objectives and, in doing so, delivers value for money.

Skills England will be led by a Chief Executive, who will be directly accountable to a relevant departmental sponsor Minister for delivery and day to day activities. They will also be accountable to the sponsor department’s Permanent Secretary for responsible use of public funds, via formal designation as Accounting Officer for the agency.

A framework document will be agreed between the department and Skills England, which will be approved by HM Treasury. This will set out the governance and accountability framework within which Skills England and the department will operate and will be publicly available.

In line with other Executive Agencies, and as set out in the Public Bodies Handbook, Skills England will regularly publish information on the execution of its functions. This will include an annual report, which sponsor ministers are required to publish to ensure Parliament is kept informed of Skills England’s activities.

The IfATE (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill also requires my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to publish and lay before Parliament, within six months after the closure of IfATE, a report setting out which of the functions in this Bill are being exercised by Skills England and the impact of this on apprenticeships and technical education in England.

I refer the hon. Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire to the answer of 19 February 2025 to Question 30787.

The government recognises that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, such as chemistry, are vital for the UK’s future economic needs and to drive up productivity. Chemistry skills, in particular, are necessary for a range of careers within the green economy, including in growing sectors like carbon capture and hydrogen.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The review will seek to deliver a curriculum that readies young people for life and work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to thrive. The review group will publish an interim report in early spring and will publish its final report with recommendations this autumn. The department will take decisions on what changes to make to the curriculum in light of these recommendations.

Oak National Academy, an independent arm’s length body which provides free, high quality, optional and adaptable curriculum resources for schools, has recently published new curriculum sequences and associated lesson resources in science from key stages 1 to 4, including chemistry. Within Oak’s science curriculum, it provides a broad range of resources to support teachers to teach about green skills, climate change and sustainability. This year, Oak is also introducing a new curriculum thread entitled ‘How can we live sustainably to protect Earth for a better future?’. This will form part of its secondary science curriculum and will support the growing emphasis of green skills in chemistry. As well as this, Oak’s chemistry lessons include a variety of data analysis tools to strengthen pupils’ digital competency. Its chemistry lessons include real-life applications of chemistry, such as industrial chemistry, environmental chemistry and material science to strengthen technical knowledge.

The department is aware of the report and we recognise the importance of skills in all sectors, including the chemical sector, which is why the government is developing a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education and skills, to break down barriers to opportunity, support the development of a skilled workforce in all areas and drive economic growth in all sectors.

The department has established Skills England to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade. It will ensure that the skills system is clear and navigable for individuals, for both young people and older adults, strengthening careers pathways into jobs across the economy.

The department published a Jobs and Skills Dashboard in May 2024, which allows users to explore employment, demand and education pathways for both science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations and occupations most relevant to the UK critical technologies. This dashboard can be accessed here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/ufs-jobs-and-skills-dashboard/?_inputs_&navbar=%22Jobs%20and%20skills%22&tabsID=%22Summary%22§orChoice=%22STEM%22&shortageTimeChoice=%22Air-conditioning%20and%20refrigeration%20engineers%20SOC2010%22.

An accompanying ad-hoc statistics release was also made available on Explore Education Statistics in May 2024, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supply-of-skills-for-jobs-in-science-and-technology.

Skills England will continue to assess the skills needs of the tech sector and the skills provision required to meet these skills needs. It is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Industrial Skills Council to bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government, including Mayoral Strategic/Combined Authorities, to develop a clear assessment of the country’s skills needs for the tech sector and map pathways by which they can be filled.

Employers have a crucial role to play in the skills system, and the department wants all employers to invest in their workforce.

The department’s post-16 education and skills strategy will set out how we will drive up employer investment in the skills needed by their workforce. We want to start a national conversation on the role that employers, government and learners have to play in funding education and training, as part of an approach that clarifies expectations of what the right mix of funding is for the skills system. We will work with employers and others as we develop the strategy.

This government is committed to driving economic growth and supporting opportunity for all. To help achieve these missions we announced £300 million in the 2025/26 financial year for further education (FE) at the Budget. We also announced £300 million of new capital funding for 2025/26 to support FE colleges to maintain, improve and ensure suitability of their estate.

FE funding, including its adequacy, will be considered as part of the multi-year spending review which will take place later this year.

The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children.

On 27 October 2024, the government announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance in up to ten local authorities to test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of supporting the child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends. The announcement is accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-protects-education-priorities-in-face-of-inherited-22-billion-blackhole. The department will share further details on the process for selecting local authorities in due course.

This is the single biggest investment made by government in kinship care to date. This investment could transform the lives of vulnerable children who can no longer live at home.

The programme will begin in 2025 and decisions about future national rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation. The department will share further detail on the timetable and delivery of the programme in due course.