Department for Education written question – answered at on 21 February 2025.
Bradley Thomas
Conservative, Bromsgrove
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to promote apprenticeships in the vocational skills required to deliver the Government's target of 1.5m homes during this Parliament.
Janet Daby
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
This government has an ambitious plan for re-building Britain, delivering 1.5 million homes in England in this Parliament.
We want to support employers, including in construction, to develop the skills they need to thrive. That is why we are widening the apprenticeships offer into a levy-funded growth and skills offer, with apprenticeships at the heart, which will deliver greater flexibility for learners and employers in England. As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors, helping more people learn new high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country, and providing high-quality entry pathways for young people.
In addition, around 5,000 more construction apprenticeship places will be made available per year by the 2027/28 financial year thanks to an £140 million industry investment to get Britain building again.
32 new Homebuilding Skills Hubs will deliver fast-track training in critical areas such as bricklaying, groundwork, and site carpentry, to boost housebuilding and drive forward the government’s growth mission.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
