§ 35. Mr. Huntasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will increase the grant-in-aid paid to the National Computing Centre in order to enable it to carry out an inquiry into the methods of recruitment and training used by private computer programming schools and similar commercial establishments in the computer field.
§ Mr. RidleyNo, Sir. The National Computing Centre is already carrying out work on aptitude testing for trainee programmer selection and developing course material for programmer training and will be making the results available for training establishments in both the public and private sector to take up.
§ Mr. HuntIs the Minister aware that his reply is somewhat disappointing? Is the inquiry into aptitude tests to which he refers aimed at the private programming schools? Is he aware that hundreds of people are being hoodwinked every week into paying large sums of money for courses which start with a totally inadequate aptitude test and end with a totally worthless certificate?
§ Mr. RidleyI am ready to consider any specific complaints which my hon. Friend may like to bring to my notice. It might be valuable if he paid a visit to the National Computing Centre to discuss these matters in detail with the director.
§ Mr. Leslie HuckfieldPerhaps the hon. Gentleman can give a guarantee that we shall have a National Computing Centre to carry out the inquiry?