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EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Apprenticeships
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how much money has been spent by her Department on funding apprenticeships in Lancashire since 1997; [214800]
(2) how many apprenticeships have been made available in (a) Lancashire and (b) the North West since 1997. [214799]
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Mr. Ivan Lewis: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council. Mark Haysom the council's chief executive will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Library.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on apprenticeships in Lancashire. [214801]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: I warmly endorse the apprenticeship provision in Lancashire, where there are currently 6,814 apprentices in a diverse set of sectors. The LSC offers employers a single point of contact for their apprenticeship provision via an independent broker. The LSC also part fund school liaison officers to promote apprenticeships to year 10 and 11 pupils in schools. The LSC works with Connexions and Jobcentre Plus to maximise take up of apprenticeships and convert jobs without training into apprenticeships.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list, by Learning and Skills Council area, the number of apprenticeships that have been granted in each of the past three years. [215109]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council. Mark Haysom, the Council's Chief Executive, will write to the hon. Member with this information and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Library.
Building Schools for the Future
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on Building Schools for the Future in Lancashire; and if she will list the new projects (a) planned, (b) under way and (c) completed in Lancashire under the programme. [214802]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Lancashire is in Wave 1 of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and its business case for 11 schools in Burnley is presently being considered for approval, with construction likely to begin in 2006. BSF will impact on all pupils over the next 15 years and the remaining 108 schools in Lancashire will be split into area groups of investment. One group of investment consisting of 21 schools is projected to fall in Waves 7–9, two groups consisting of 53 schools are projected to fall within Waves 10–12 and two further groups of 34 schools are projected to fall within Waves 13–15.
Since Building Schools for the Future is a relatively young programme, there are as yet no completed projects.
Class Sizes
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children aged (a) five, (b) six and (c) seven years were taught in class sizes of over 30 in (i) Lancashire and (ii) Chorley in each of the last seven years. [214803]
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
The age of individual pupils in classes is not collected centrally. The available information is shown in the table.
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(11)Includes middle schools as deemed.
(12)Percentage of pupils in those classes expressed as a percentage of pupils in all classes taught by one teacher.
(13)Before local government reorganisation.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census
Education (16-to-19 year olds)
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the components are of the unit cost funding gap between the cost of educating (a) a school sixth-former and (b) a further education college student in the 16 to 19 age range. [214185]
Dr. Howells: The Department is unable to provide full details on unit cost for both school sixth forms and further education colleges. We are however able to provide details of funding rates for the two types of institution. It is worth noting however that these figures do not represent all funding that school sixth forms and colleges receive and are thus not directly comparable.
Under the LSC's funding formula the basic cost to the public purse of delivering three A-levels to a student at an English maintained secondary school will be £3,212 in the academic year 2004/05. This figure comprises £785 for the delivery of each A-level learning aim, £750 for each student for the entitlement element of their learning programme, and £107 for each student to meet additional employers' contributions to teachers' pensions.
The LSC funding rates show that the basic cost to the public purse of delivering three A-levels in a sixth form college and a further education college to a student in the 2004/05 academic year will be £3,045. This figure comprises £766 for the delivery of each A-level learning aim, and £747 for each student for the entitlement element of their learning programme.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Mr. Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people are in receipt of education maintenance allowance (EMA) in Birmingham, broken down by constituency; and what the total value of EMA paid to them is. [214034]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and been paid an education maintenance allowance is available at local education authority level, but not at constituency level. By the end of December 2004 10,622 young people in the Birmingham local education authority area had
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received one or more EMA payments. In addition 613 young people in the Solihull local education authority area had received one or more EMA payments.
We do not break down the figures to show specifically how much is spent in each LEA area. The total cost of EMA payments in England, including some January bonuses, at 31 January was £112.3 million.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students received the £100 education maintenance allowance cash bonus in January; how many payments are outstanding; what the total cost of the payments to date; and what estimate has been made of the expected total annual cost of the cash bonus payments. [214263]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Based on data available at 1 February, 135,000 young people so far have met all the criteria enabling them to receive the January Bonus. The total cost so far of this element of the EMA scheme is £13.5 million.
It is not possible to say how many payments are still outstanding. Decisions from colleges and schools will continue to come through. Data shows that of the 274,000 young people enrolled on the EMA system there have been 21,000 decisions not to pay the bonus so far.
In the first academic year of their post-16 studies, students may be eligible to receive two bonus payments—in January and July. In subsequent years they may be eligible to receive a third bonus in September if they return to study after the summer holiday. For the 2004/05 academic year the estimated cost of the bonuses is around £43 million. For the 2005/06 academic year the estimated cost of the bonuses is around £78 million rising to around £86 million in the 2006/07 academic year when the scheme is fully implemented. These estimates are based on 75 per cent. of EMA students actually meeting all the criteria.
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