New Training Initiative (Hansard, 8 June 1982)

§ 8. Mr. Haselhurst
asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he has met the chairman of the Manpower Services Commission to discuss the report of the task group on the new training initiative; and if he will make a statement.

§ 13. Mr. Marlow
asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will make a statement on the arrangements he is making for the youth training scheme.

§ Mr. Tebbit
I have spoken to the chairman concerning the youth task group report and youth training recently, and I shall announce the Government's decision on the report as soon as possible.

§ Mr. Haselhurst
Does my right hon. Friend accept the view of the chairman of the Manpower Services Commission, that one of the most important elements in the task group report is the continuing commitment to a training programme? Does he accept that resources so allocated would be a better use of public funds in the long term than the use of similar sums of money to support schemes of early retirement?

§ Mr. Tebbit
Certainly training is of great importance. Generally, money that is spent on training is money well spent. However, I hope that no one will assume that it should be the Government's business to provide all the money for training, even the training of 16-year-olds. That burden should properly be borne by industry in the long run, although we are making available over £1 billion in the first year of the youth training scheme to launch the scheme and to help to combat the problem of youth unemployment.

§ Mr. Marlow
Will my right hon. Friend encourage the MSC to extend its excellent programme not just to training for working life but to preparation and training for life in general, because many people will go from one form of working life to another? Unfortunately, many young people will not be going into employment. In many parts of the country there will not be schemes that suit those people. Can we broaden the range of the youth training scheme so that there is general preparation for life?

§ Mr. Tebbit
I hope that within all the youth training scheme programmes there will be some general training for life which is aimed in particular at the inner urban areas, where many of the youngsters who come forward have not been as well educated as they might have been and are not as well motivated in some cases as they might be. That would be important. If my hon. Friend has further ideas about that, perhaps he would be interested in talking to the chairman of the commission about them.

§ Mr. Allan Roberts
Is the Secretary of State aware that the reason for scepticism among young people and their parents about his proposed youth training scheme is that the present youth opportunities programme does not seem to be policed adequately by the MSC? There are many examples of young people being exploited by unscrupulous employers who use them as cheap labour. Advice bureaux and surgeries of Members of Parliament, including mine, hear about those examples in areas of high youth unemployment.

§ Mr. Tebbit
I do not think that there is a great deal of abuse, although I would be the first to admit that there are some such cases. Where they are brought to the notice of the MSC, they are followed up. On a number of occasions, when employers have abused schemes, the schemes have been terminated. If the hon. Gentleman is worried about that, that is all the more reason why he should welcome the youth training scheme, which, because of its nature, is less open to abuse than YOP.

§ Mr. Forman
In view of the great importance of the Government's new training initiative, does my right hon. Friend recognise the equal importance of accepting the task group report as a whole and not picking and choosing between parts of it?

§ Mr. Tebbit
I shall discuss that matter further with the chairman in due course. I hope to announce my decision before too long. However, I must say that I made proposals to the commission and the commission has come back with its suggestions. It would be unwise for any of us to take an absolutely rigid attitude—that what we put on the table is the final word and that no modification can be brooked.

§ Mr. Barry Jones
Has not the right hon. Gentleman suffered a stinging rebuke and a humiliating rebuff by the task group, as it has denounced his plans for compulsion? Is he not totally isolated from the TUC, the commission and the CBI? Why does he not have the courage to admit today that his compulsory £15-a-week scheme is a provocative folly?

§ Mr. Tebbit
Not least because I have never proposed a compulsory scheme. If the hon. Gentleman or any of his colleagues do not understand what the word "compulsory" means, I shall send them a photocopy of the appropriate page of The Oxford English Dictionary.