To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department plans to offer (a) Royal Navy, (b) Army and (c) Royal Air Force recruits apprenticeships appropriate to their trade or profession; and whether any changes are planned to apprenticeships that are in place in each service. (187273)

The armed forces are one of the UK's largest employers of apprentices. Training is delivered ‘in-house’, with specific apprenticeship requirements being interwoven with the training needs of the operational environment. In the vast majority of cases, apprenticeship programmes directly relate to specific service professions and have significant portability when personnel return to civilian life. In the last financial year the armed forces recorded over 7,300 funded apprentice completions. In order to meet their business needs, the armed forces continue to expand the variety of apprenticeship schemes available to their personnel. No changes are planned to apprenticeship schemes that are currently in place.