Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Amendment 315 is about training teachers for vocational subjects. There is a problem in that those who have the QTS qualification have little training in vocational subjects. Those who teach vocational subjects in further education colleges have the QTLS qualification, which is not acceptable in an ordinary school unless they have a degree. Some of them come into vocational subjects without having degrees. I am in discussion with the Bill team and with Ministers on these issues and it would be sensible to pursue our discussion. Amendment 315A is about outdoor education and whether sufficient training is given to those going through the initial teacher training on how to handle outdoor expeditions. Do they know enough about writing risk assessments and the like? There is evidence that some of them do not have enough training to be confident in taking groups outside school. For that reason, many schools are not mounting as many expeditions. It is important that they do because there are many advantages in having expeditions of one sort or another outside the school. In both cases, we need to look at the training that is given and minor amendments are required. It would be sensible for us to pursue our discussions with Ministers and reach an agreement and on Report perhaps make a statement clarifying the situation.