HL Deb 15 March 1984 vol 449 cc856-7

3.11 p.m.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My Lords. I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many adults will be able to enter training programmes as a result of their recent White Paper Training for Jobs (Cmnd. 9135).

The Minister of State, Privy Council Office, and Minister for the Arts (The Earl of Gowrie)

My Lords, as the White Paper Training for Jobs makes clear, primary responsibility for skill training must rest with employers although the Government will continue to explore ways of encouraging them to do more, and more effective, training. The restructuring of the Government's own adult training programme announced in the White Paper would enable over 250,000 people to be trained each year, which compares with some 110,000 under existing programmes.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My Lords, while thanking my noble friend the Minister for that very encouraging reply for the Ides of March, may I ask him whether there is any news as to progress on the programmes announced for training generally in the White Paper?

The Earl of Gowrie

My Lords, in paragraph 40 of the White Paper we said that the Manpower Services Commission proposes to start implementing its proposals experimentally this year, that is 1984–5, and to begin restructuring its own programmes in 1985–6. One of the things that we hope to learn from the pilot schemes is how rapidly we are able to implement the proposals. I cannot therefore be more precise at this stage.

Lord Dean of Beswick

My Lords, is the noble Earl aware that I agree with the noble Baroness in her welcome for the Minister's first comment? The full attainment of the proposals in the White Paper, when that happens, will be welcome. Surely, however, the Minister must be aware that there are already hundreds of thousands of people with special skills ranging from the professions to artisan types—highly skilled and highly trained—who are waiting the opportunity to work. When will the Government implement some proposals to get these people who are already trained back in work?

The Earl of Gowrie

My Lords, the noble Lord will be aware of the difficult phenomenon that is not restricted to this country, but experienced by all the industrialised countries, known as mis-match. It is not always easy to deploy a highly skilled worker in one field, which may be in decline structurally, towards another field of employment without retraining. And retraining is what we are trying to do in these circumstances.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My Lords, may I ask my noble friend the Minister whether there is any news on the proposal of a loan scheme for adult trainees?

The Earl of Gowrie

My Lords, I would need a little prior notice about that, but I shall examine whether it is possible to establish such a scheme if it does not exist.