Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to encourage local authorities to offer apprenticeships.

Mr Marcus Jones

My Department is working closely across Government and with the Local Government Association to encourage local authorities to start planning now so they can take advantage of the opportunities both the apprenticeship levy and targets offer to meet skills shortages and increase apprenticeship numbers. The Department has already jointly hosted, with BIS and the Local Government Association, two successful round table events with local authorities to support them in meeting the challenge of significantly increasing the numbers of apprenticeships in the wider public sector.