§ 22. Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North) (Lab)What support the Government are providing for women returning to work who want to acquire professional qualifications. [182671]
§ The Deputy Minister for Women and Equality (Jacqui Smith)We recognise the barriers that women face in returning to work and acquiring professional qualifications, and consequently we have introduced a raft of measures to help ease the transition. Those measures include the new deal for partners, the new deal for lone parents, the new deal 50-plus, new rights for working parents, a national child care strategy, tax credits and financial support as part of the lifelong learning programme.
§ Ms KeebleIs my hon. Friend aware that University college Northampton in my constituency runs very good nursing and teaching courses? However, women find it difficult to complete those courses and return to work because they have problems paying for child care, and other problems arise during holidays. Such women say that the schemes help them return to work to stack shelves, but not to do professional jobs. Will she talk to her colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education and Skills—some of them are sitting on the Front Bench—about integrating benefits and the student support system to allow women to qualify as nurses and teachers and to take degree courses rather than just diplomas? [Interruption.]
§ Mr. Deputy SpeakerOrder. I do not want advice from Opposition Front Benchers. The hon. Lady knows that her question was far too long and rambling.
§ Jacqui SmithMy hon. Friend rightly identified not only the challenges faced by those who want to return to teaching or the health service, but the importance of bringing back into those sectors those women and their skills. Progress has been made on bursaries and child care support in both education and the national health service, and I shall bear my hon. Friend's comments in mind and report them to my colleagues.
§ Mrs. Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con)Is the Minister aware that it takes a long time to obtain a professional qualification in child care and that the need for more people to work in child care is urgent? Does she agree that a mother who has successfully brought up a child to school age has effectively served a rigorous apprenticeship in child care? Will she consider accrediting that experience towards a professional qualification for mothers who want to return to work in the child care profession?
§ Jacqui SmithThe hon. Lady is right. The massive expansion in child care under this Government has placed child care workers' skills at a premium. The hon. Lady makes a fair point about the skills that women gain by bringing up their own children. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Children and other ministerial colleagues are examining how we can recognise those skills, while also recognising the importance of high quality training for our child care workers.