HC Deb 18 February 1959 vol 600 cc368-9
52. Miss Burton

asked the Minister of Labour what steps have been taken further to encourage both sides of industry to get together on the question of juvenile employment; how far local apprenticeship committees are able to deal with the problem; and if he will make a statement.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service (Mr. Richard Wood)

Employers and workers are both represented on Youth Employment Committees which advise on the administration of the Youth Employment Service in their area. Local apprenticeship committees which have been appointed by some industries are concerned with training rather than employment. The placing in employment of boys and girls who left school at Christmas is proceeding satisfactorily though it is taking longer than in recent years.

Miss Burton

Can the Parliamentary Secretary comment on the suggestion which was made last night by Mr. Jack Jones, of the Transport and General Workers' Union, to the effect that it would be useful if there were group apprenticeship schemes, to which the smaller employers might contribute some of the cost? Can he also comment on the the fact that Mr. Jones said that it was an entirely erroneous belief that the number of apprentices was limited by the trade unions in many industries, and that in the engineering industry it was the employers who were deciding the number of apprentices?

Mr. Wood

I am entirely in agreement about group apprenticeship schemes, and I have done what I can to say how necessary it is that they should grow. So far as the second part of the hon. Lady's supplementary question is concerned, I think there are various limiting factors to the number of apprentices. I am quite certain that it is to the benefit of us all that these limiting factors should be eliminated.

Mr. Lee

May I ask the hon. Gentleman if he is aware that there is now increasing anxiety in the country about the number of school leavers who are unable to find jobs, and about the slow way in which even those who do find jobs are going into industry, and also about the fact that the "bulge" within three years will increase the number leaving school by about one-third? Can he say what steps are being taken by the Government to meet such a situation?

Mr. Wood

I think that the figures of unemployed school-leavers have to be kept in proportion. In the hon. Lady's city, I find that out of nearly 1,000 who left school last Christmas, there are only 11 boys and 21 girls still without jobs. I certainly have the matter very much in mind, but I think it ought to be kept in proportion.

Mr. Lee

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that Coventry is one of the areas in which there is one of the smallest problems in this respect, and that it was rather from the general point of view of other parts of the country that I was putting my question to him?

Miss Burton

I do not think I can accept that last statement of my hon. Friend.