§ 42. Mr. Probertasked the Minister of Labour what plans he has for encouraging apprentice training in development areas.
§ Mr. HattersleyWe are making a new Provision, through industrial training Boards, for grants to employers in development areas who provide additional off-the-job training facilities for apprentices or technicians or otherwise increase their numbers of such trainees. There are two alternative types of grant—a capital grant of 60 per cent. of the relevant costs of additional training places or per capita grants of £100 a year for up to five years in respect of any approved trainees in excess of the numbers under training on 1st January, 1968. Under the latter scheme, an additional per capita grant of £50 will be available in mid-1968 for employers who increase their number of approved trainees by then.
§ Mr. ProbertI thank my hon. Friend for that very welcome news. Can he say whether the grants which he has announced are additional to the training grants already available from the industrial training boards?
§ Mr. HattersleyThese grants from a totally new incentive for employers in 913 development areas. The new grants will be supplementary to the wide range of grants already available for industrial training boards, and will therefore afford a potent Stimulus for increased training in these important areas.
§ Mr. R. CarrWill the hon. Gentleman confirm that the new grants are to be limited to apprentices and technicians, and are not available, for example, for adult retrainees?
§ Mr. HattersleyI am sure the right hon. Gentleman knows that there is already a large apparatus of grants available for training in the development areas, including grants for some upgrading training of adults. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a comprehensive addition to that range of grants. This is the penultimate item in that addition, and more is yet to come.