Andrea today questioned ministers from the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills on their work to help people from deprived backgrounds.
Andrea recently met with representatives from the Sutton Trust, and will be helping them with their upcoming inquiry into social mobilty with the APPG for Social Mobility.
Given her personal background as someone who left school at 16 to go straight into work, Andrea was keen to pressure the Government on their work to ensure others like her would have the same opportunities to grow and progress.
Andrea asked:
"I was a comprehensive school girl who left school at 16, so social mobility is very important to me, and I am pleased to be involved in the new inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on social mobility into getting people from diverse backgrounds into top professions.
"Will my honourable Friend tell me what steps the Government are taking to ensure that more people, regardless of their background, can secure further education or employment?"
The Minister for Life Sciences, George Freeman, replied:
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to set out the Government’s support for our apprenticeship programme. We have committed to doubling spending on it and to see the number of apprenticeships rise to 3 million this year. They are a crucial platform for providing opportunity and social mobility in areas too often left behind in the past.
You can listen back to the question and answer below.