§ 1. Matthew BanksTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people entered a scheme on leaving school in 1992; what was the equivalent figure in 1979; and if she will make a statement.
§ The Secretary of State for Employment (Mrs. Gillian Shephard)The 270,000 young people starting youth training in 1992–93 all received training. Fewer than a quarter of the 162,000 starting on the youth opportunities programme in 1978–79 received training.
§ Mr. BanksI am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that answer. Will she assure me that she will continue to develop training policy to benefit the individual, rather than follow the advice of the Labour party, which is based on the social chapter and a national minimum wage but which would have a devastating consequence for our job prospects?
§ Mrs. ShephardNo doubt hon. Friend has noted that the number of unemployed young people in Britain is far below the EC average and that the opportunities that we offer under youth training, and in particular under youth credits, which we are extending into his constituency, give young people a very good start.
§ Mr. GrocottDoes the Secretary of State acknowledge that, in the long history of silly, planted questions, that one must take the prize with additional awards? What matters to school leavers is not the number of training places, so many of which are of dubious value and do not lead to jobs, but the number of jobs and of proper apprenticeships. Will she confirm that they were much more abundant under the Labour Government of the 1970s than now? If she can cast her mind back further to the heady days of the Labour Government of the 1960s, will she confirm that the problem for school leavers was the abundant choice of jobs?
§ Mrs. ShephardYoung people and others certainly want jobs and want their training to lead to jobs, but it is extraordinary for the hon. Gentleman to assert that Conservative Members do not understand that point when Labour Members, with their support for a national minimum wage and for the provisions of the social chapter and their hostility to employers, never cease to show that they do not understand the point.
Lady OlgaaitlandI congratulate my right hon. Friend on the fact that more than 300,000 young people are now on youth training schemes, and only just over 5,000 youngsters are waiting barely eight weeks to get on to a scheme.
§ Mrs. ShephardIn the past year, we experienced some problems with young people waiting longer than that. The Department therefore waged an intensive campaign to reduce that waiting time. Thanks to some full and frank discussions that I had with certain training and enterprise councils, we have now reached the figure that my hon. Friend gave, which is a great improvement on earlier figures. I will not rest until we have improved it still further.