On Monday 10 February Peter Aldous, Member of Parliament for Waveney, asked a further question about 18 year old funding. The question he asked and the reply from Matthew Hancock are set out below:-

Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con): What progress he has made on improving the quality of vocational education. [902480]

The Minister for Skills and Enterprise (Matthew Hancock): We are making the vocational education system more rigorous and more responsive to employers’ needs, removing thousands of qualifications that are not valued by employers and driving up the quality of apprenticeships.

Peter Aldous: Lowestoft College is doing excellent work in providing young people with the necessary vocational skills for the many jobs that will be created in the energy sector, but the cut in funding for 18-year-olds will have a significant impact on that work. I should welcome an update from the Minister on what mitigating measures are being introduced.

Matthew Hancock: I strongly support Lowestoft College, and I particularly welcome the fact that the number of apprenticeships in my hon. Friend’s constituency has almost doubled since 2010. As he knows, we are looking into the allocations to individual colleges, and also looking into measures to mitigate the effects of the change we have had to make.