§ Mr. Leslie Spriggs (St. Helens)I beg to move,
That this House calls upon Her Majesty's Government to give financial support to the Index Project training scheme for school leavers planned for St. Helens, Merseyside; and urges local authorities and employers to support this scheme with all available resources.I am sorry about the lack of time, because this is an important subject. There are hundreds of thousands of school leavers looking to the future to see what it holds for them. They expect me to move the motion. The scheme, known as an index project, is only a pilot scheme. It is not in competition with official Government schemes, such as the youth opportunities programme. In fact, it actually involves that scheme. I want to say a few words of commendation to certain employers—Pilkington Brothers, National Westminster Bank, and about 50 firms in the area—who support the scheme and are prepared to take their labour requirements from the index project when the school leavers have completed their training of between 18 months and two years.I appreciate that I am rapidly running out of time. The Minister will have no opportunity to reply to my extremely brief contribution. In view of that, I beg to give notice that I shall seek an early opportunity to raise the matter on the Adjournment.