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<p>The department is aware of the APPG on Youth Affairs Report, Empowering Youth for
the Future of Work. Much of the report covers important matters that match our aims
and policies, such as ensuring education and training meet future skills needs, giving
young people the opportunities to thrive, the value of work experience and careers
advice, and the importance of apprenticeships.</p><p>The government is committed to
creating a world-leading skills system that is employer-focused, high-quality and
fit for the future. Departmental reforms are strengthening higher and further education
to help more people get good jobs and upskill and retrain throughout their lives,
and to improve national productivity and economic growth. The reforms are backed with
an additional investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen
higher and further education.</p><p>The department has invested over £7 billion during
the 2022/23 academic year, to ensure there was a place in education or training for
every 16- to 18-year-old who wanted one.</p><p>The 2021 Spending Review made available
an extra £1.6 billion in 2024/25 for 16-19 education compared with the 2021/22 financial
year, which is the biggest increase in a decade.</p><p>In January 2023 the department
announced a further £125 million funding available in 2023/24. In July further announcements
were made of investments of £185 million in 2023/24 and £285 million in 2024/25 to
help 16-19 providers address key priorities.</p><p>The department is investing over
£90 million in the financial year 2023/24 to help young people and adults to get high-quality
careers provision. The department is supporting schools and colleges, through the
Careers & Enterprise Company, to make sustained progress in developing their careers
programmes, in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks, which set out what good careers advice
looks like. The department has strengthened legislation to ensure all secondary pupils
have access to independent careers guidance and at least six encounters with providers
of technical education or apprenticeships. Currently about two thirds (65%) of year
13 students have experiences of the workplace.</p><p>The department wants to support
more young people to start and achieve apprenticeships that offer good earnings potential
and career progression and funding for apprenticeships will be £2.7 billion by 2024/25.
The department is also paying employers and providers £1,000 when they take on apprentices
aged 16 to 18 and covering 100 per cent of the training cost for smaller employers
when they take on these younger apprentices.</p><p>T Levels will also equip more young
people with the skills, knowledge and experience to access skilled employment or further
study. They represent a real shift in the quality of technical education and the department
has invested significantly to support providers in their implementation. From September
2023 18 T Levels will be available, being delivered through nearly 300 providers across
all regions of the country.</p><p>In 2021/2022 the department engaged closely with
the Education Select Committee on Youth Unemployment which covered similar matters
to the APPG report, providing evidence and a government response, which can be found
at <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/506/youth-unemployment-committee/publications/"
target="_blank">https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/506/youth-unemployment-committee/publications/</a>.</p>
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