§ 3. Mr. Haselhurstasked the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has so far received in response to his White Paper, "Training for Jobs".
§ The Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Tom King)The wide-ranging proposals in our White Paper "Training for Jobs" have been generally welcomed. Concern has, however, been expressed about the proposals on further education. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science, I, and other colleagues met the local authority associations yesterday to discuss these aspects of the proposals.
§ Mr. HaselhurstHas my right hon. Friend heard about the anxiety of industries in which there are voluntary training arrangements that many companies may not be playing their full role in training and that the Government may need to show that they expect companies to take their responsibilities seriously if the White Paper's objectives are to be fully implemented?
§ Mr. KingI believe—I hope that the whole House shares this view—that we have an urgent task to ensure that training is as relevant as we can make it. I was interested to see, against the background of concern about unemployment, an important article on the electronics industry entitled, "The Jobs They Can't Fill" and the amount of recruiting that is taking place overseas to prevent industries suffering severe impediments to their expansion because of the difficulty of getting people for these jobs. I accept the need for close co-operation, which the White Paper seeks to set out, in ensuring that we train people for the jobs that are needed.