Training Opportunities Scheme

HC Deb 20 July 1976 vol 915 cc1497-9

3. Mr. Litterick

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what plans he has to expand the Training Opportunities Scheme during the next 12 months.

2. Mr. Raphael Tuck

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what expansion in the Training Opportunities Scheme is planned over the next 12 months.

The secretary of state for Employment (Mr. Albert Booth)

The Manpower Services Commission is planning to train 80,000 people under the Training Opportunities Scheme in 1976, compared with 60,000 in 1975. The objective for 1977 was 82,000 trainees, but is expected to be increased to 84,000 as part of the additional measures to alleviate unemployment announced on 5th May 1976.

Mr. Litterick

I am grateful for that reply. Notwithstanding that progress has been made by the Government in providing training opportunities, particularly for young people, in the city of Birmingham and, I understand, in other cities, it is still inadequate. May we have an assurance that the whole area of training and work opportunities for the unemployed will not be left to the local authorities, many of which are now dominated by Tories who are hell-bent on reducing public expenditure to such an extent that that by itself will create yet another wave of problems?

Mr. Booth

I can certainly give my hon. Friend the assurance he seeks. The local authorities have played a very valuable part in bringing about a number of job creation schemes, but we shall not rely on local authorities to sustain or improve training. It would be unfair to put that task upon them in present circumstances. We have already brought about a substantial increase in adult training through the Training Services Agency and we are working with the Manpower Services Commission to improve upon the already increased numbers of places for training young people.

Sir W. Elliott

Will the Secretary of State look at registered vacancies in the Northern Region in particular and think in terms of encouraging private industry to introduce more individual training schemes? The level of registered vacancies alongside the very high unemployment figures just do not make sense.

Mr. Booth

I very much appreciate the hon. Gentleman's point. One of the schemes which has been developed through the TSA is that of assisting private employers by paying for additional places in their training schools and within their normal craft training arrangements. As a result of that we are aiming at sustaining, particularly in manufacturing industries, a training intake equivalent to that which existed before the recession started.

Mr. Corbett

I welcome my right hon. Friend's figures, but does he not agree that against the need to have skilled labour in the right places at the right time the figures are far too paltry?

Mr. Booth

I would not have called them paltry. They represent the biggest-ever Government effort to sustain and increase training. Our difficulty is to ensure that against the desperately serious unemployment situation sufficient training is carried out to avoid shortages of skilled labour when the upturn comes. I do not think that we can guarantee that by the measures we have so far introduced, and that is why we are seriously considering whether they can be supplemented by additional measures.

Mr. Hayhoe

We fully support the provision of training opportunities. Will the right hon. Gentleman take the earliest opportunity to repudiate the absurd use of statistics by the Minister of State, who sought by the figure he used to get away from the fact that the Government are now responsible for the highest level of unemployment over the longest period since the 1930s? It is the Ministers of this Government who are the dole-queue millionaires.

Mr. Booth

There is no need for me to repudiate the figures used by my hon. Friend, because he was quoting figures which were calculated on the basis used at that time. Let me make it clear that that method of counting is not now used, and if common counting methods were still used, the figures would show that we have a much higher level of unemployment now.