§ Following is the Statement fir the Secretary of State for Employment (the Right Honourable Norman Fouler):
§ "With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a Statement on a new training programme for unemployed people.
§ "Unemployment has now fallen for 16 months in succession by a total of nearly 500,000. Over the past 12 months long-term unemployment has shown a record fall and the latest figures for unemployed young people also show that we are well on the way to eliminating the problem of school-leaver unemployment. This September there were fewer unemployed school-leavers than for 13 years.
§ "I believe that this is the right time to review the Government's programmes for unemployed people. We need to be sure that we have the right programmes to meet the demands of an improving labour market. We need to be sure that we are giving unemployed people the help they need to take advantage of the increasing number of jobs now becoming available. And we need to be sure that the programmes we operate are helping to provide the skills we require to compete in world markets.
195§ "I am clear that the priority now must be to provide training for the long-term unemployed. The emphasis should be switched away from providing temporary jobs as an alternative to unemployment and towards providing training to help unemployed people to get back into permanent jobs. But more than that, we must ensure that the training we provide is geared both to the needs of the individual and to those of the economy.
§ "We already have a unified programme for young people—the youth training scheme. I have now decided to bring together all the existing programmes for unemployed people over 18 into a single new programme. It will involve the substantial reform of the community programme, including a major enhancement of its training content. This new programme will offer up to 12 months training for anyone who has been out of work for more than six months. Entry to the programme will be through the Restart interviews and jobcentres. Training agents will then assess the needs of each person and training providers will arrange a suitable programme. There will be special arrangements for disabled people and others with special needs.
§ "This new programme will involve employers and a range of other organisations like chambers of commerce and voluntary and training bodies. I hope that managing agents now in the community programme and the job training scheme will play a full part. The programme will provide training and practical experience with employers and on projects. The emphasis will be on practical learning to help people get back into employment. Accordingly, the training will range from basic working skills, including numeracy and literacy, to training at craft and technician level. The aim is that the new programme should improve significantly on the number of people who obtain jobs when they leave.
§ "For all its merits, the community programme in its present form does not attract unemployed people with dependants and with higher benefit entitlement. It has become increasingly a programme for single people rather than the family man with children. It has also become overwhelmingly a part-time programme with very little opportunity for training. We need to tackle these problems at the root. It is essential that unemployed people who join the new programme know that they will be better off than they were on benefit. I therefore intend that all trainees in the new programme should be paid a training allowance which will give them a lead over their previous benefit entitlement.
§ "The budget for the new programme will be just under £1½ billion a year, so maintaining the provision for the schemes it will replace. When the new programme is fully operational it will be possible to provide training for some 600,000 people a year. It will therefore make a major contribution to fulfilling the Government's commitments to the long-term unemployed. And it will also help to ensure that we train the workforce 196 with the skills that we shall need in the 1990s and into the next century.
§ "I am asking the Manpower Services Commission for its comments on the new programme and to let me have proposals for introducing it from September next year. I propose to publish a White Paper early next year setting out the detail of the new programme and putting it in the context of the Government's overall strategy for employment and training.
§ "At a time of rapid growth and change in employment opportunities, training through life is of key importance. That means training for the young and for adults; for the unemployed and for the employed. The programme I am announcing today focuses on the long-term unemployed and complements the youth training scheme for young people and our efforts through employers to improve and increase training for employed people.
§ "No other country has a programme on this scale. It will provide new opportunities for long-term unemployed people to obtain the skills and qualifications employers need. This programme will benefit unemployed people, employers and the economy as a whole, and I hope that it will command the support of the whole House".