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Successes and success rates in LSC work based learning provision for adults (19+)
	Successes( 1) (thousands)					Current success rates (percentage)
Programme type	2001/02	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2005/06	2001/02	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2005/06
Advanced Apprentice-ships (Level 3)	10	12	12	13	17	31	39	44	50	60
Apprentice-ships at level 2	10	14	17	24	28	31	35	42	52	59
All frameworks or NVQs(2)	25	35	39	44	49	33	40	46	53	60
(1) Successfully completing framework or NVQ component or both. (2) Includes NVQ training not separately identified above.

Adult Learning Grant

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills when the full guidance for the administration of the adult learning grant will be issued. [153012]

Mr. Lammy: The Adult Learning Grant (ALG) provides income assessed support of up to £30 per week to adults studying full time for their first full Level 2 or first full Level 3 qualification. Following a successful pilot period during which ALG has been shown to improve retention and success rates among learners it is being introduced across England from September 2007. The scheme is administered by a single helpline, Assessment and Payment body, with further education colleges providing voluntary support to applicants. Outline guidance was distributed to all colleges in June. Full, detailed administrative guidance will be published in early August 2007.

Apprentices

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what proportion of trainees (a) in total and (b) in each sector progressed from an apprenticeship at level 2 to an advanced apprenticeship in the latest period for which figures are available. [153468]

Mr. Lammy: Data relating to progression for apprenticeship to advanced apprenticeship is not currently available in a comprehensive manner because of the lack of unique learner identifiers in the Learning and Skills Council’s (LSC) individualised learner record (ILR) data prior to 2007/08. The unique learner number (ULN) will enable the linking of two mutually exclusive records and episodes of learning to estimate the volume of learners progressing to advanced apprenticeship. The ULN is expected to be rolled out to all provision from January 2008, with a plan to compel use by LSC funded provision from September 2008. It will then take some years to work through the system before the ULN can be used to comprehensively monitor the progress of learners across provision, where there has been a break in the training.

Assessments: Prisoners

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what steps he plans
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to take in conjunction with the Prison Service to resolve security and other access issues so that serving prisoners may take vocational examinations which are available solely on-line. [153384]

Mr. Lammy: The ‘Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment: Next Steps’, published jointly by the former department for education and skills, the Home Office and the department for Work and Pensions in December 2006 gave a clear commitment to improve the use of technology in delivering learning to offenders in custody, as well as offering more widespread access to ICT qualifications.

DIUS are working closely with NOMS on an initiative to deliver resettlement services electronically to offenders. The Programme for Offender Learning and Resettlement Information Services (POLARIS) is being trialled in selected London prisons to develop a secure means of offering prisoners access to e-learning, including on-line examinations, and other resettlement services.

Degrees: Ethnic Groups

Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (1) how many and what percentage of students from (a) Asian Bangladeshi, (b) Asian Chinese, (c) Asian Indian, (d) Asian Pakistani, (e) other Asian, (f) Black African, (g) Black Caribbean, (h) Other Black, (i) White and (j) other ethnic backgrounds (i) applied and (ii) were
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accepted for (A) full-time and (b) part-time first undergraduate honours degrees in each year since 1997; [148119]

(2) how many and what percentage of students from (a) Asian Bangladeshi, (b) Asian Chinese, (c) Asian Indian, (d) Asian Pakistani, (e) other Asian, (f) Black African, (g) Black Caribbean, (h) Other Black, (i) White and (j) other ethnic backgrounds (i) applied and (ii) were accepted for (A) foundation degrees, (B) undergraduate honours degrees and (C) HNDs in each year since 1997. [148120]

Bill Rammell: The available information is shown in the tables. The figures are taken from data collected by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) which are limited to students who apply to full-time undergraduate courses via the UCAS application system. The figures do not therefore cover part-time students, nor those full-time students who apply directly to Higher Education Institutions.

UCAS do not allocate applicants to specific course types because students can submit up to six applications to one or more of First Degree, Foundation Degree, HMD or other courses. For acceptances, the figures for Degrees include both first degrees and foundation degrees.

A new classification of ethnic group was introduced in 2001 which allowed those students of mixed ethnicity to be classified in more detail. Figures for 2000 and earlier are therefore not strictly comparable with those for 2001 and later years.

UK Domiciled Applicants by Ethnic Group, UK Higher Education Institutions, Year of Entry 1997 to 2006
	1997		1998		1999		2000
Ethnic Group	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Asian Bangladeshi	2,461	0.7	2,574	0.7	2,854	0.8	3,013	0.8
Asian Chinese	3,477	0.9	3,353	0.9	3,570	1.0	3,594	1.0
Asian Indian	15,317	4.1	15,910	4.4	16,590	4.6	17,024	4.7
Asian Pakistani	9,124	2.4	9,482	2.6	9,944	2.8	10,223	2.8
Other Asian	4,581	1.2	4,553	1.3	4,606	1.3	4,699	1.3
Black African	7,687	2.1	7,061	2.0	7,091	2.0	7,517	2.1
Black Caribbean	4,832	1.3	4,547	1.3	4,540	1.3	4,370	1.2
Other Black	2,296	0.6	2,431	0.7	2,517	0.7	2,724	0.8
White	315,137	84.4	300,927	83.8	299,620	83.2	298,395	82.7
Other ethnic backgrounds	6,367	1.7	6,346	1.8	6,749	1.9	7,171	2.0
Total with known ethnic backgrounds	373,276	100.0	359,182	100.0	360,080	100.0	360,730	100.0
Unknown	27,048	—	32,404	—	30,610	—	30,361	—
Total including unknown	398,327	—	389,588	—	388,691	—	389,091	—

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	2001		2002		2003
Ethnic Group	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Asian Bangladeshi	3,278	0.9	3,074	0.8	3,272	0.9
Asian Chinese	3,783	1.0	3,754	1.0	3,799	1.1
Asian Indian	17,234	4.7	16,309	4.4	16,402	4.6
Asian Pakistani	11,040	3.0	10,202	2.8	10,735	3.0
Other Asian	4,450	1.2	4,544	1.2	4,706	1.3
Black African	8,546	2.3	8,992	2.4	10,856	3.0
Black Caribbean	4,823	1.3	4,676	1.3	4,926	1.4
Other Black	1,072	0.3	1,060	0.3	1,237	0.3
White	302,636	82.6	304,366	82.9	290,769	81.2
Other ethnic backgrounds(1)	9,729	2.7	10,159	2.8	11,241	3.1
Total with known ethnic backgrounds	366,591	100.0	367,136	100.0	357,943	100.0
Unknown	33,054	—	34,718	—	31,179	—
Total including unknown	399,645	—	401,854	—	409,968	—

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