Education and Training: Targets (Hansard, 2 November 1993)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Employment (Lord Henley)
My Lords, the first targets are due to be reached in 1996; meanwhile encouraging progress is being made. The National Advisory Council for Education and Training Targets will monitor and report annually.

§ Lord Rochester
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that reply. Did he see the warning by the Institute of Manpower Studies, in a recent report prepared for his department, that more people need to take part in education and training if the national targets set by the CBI and endorsed by the Government are to be met? Did he further note that the institute criticised the targets on the grounds that they do not form part of a coherent national strategy; that they have a poor public profile; and that deliverers of the targets, including training and enterprise councils, are not working in close partnership? Does the Minister accept any of those criticisms; and, if so, what is being done to deal with them?

§ Lord Henley
My Lords, I should like to stress, first, that the report to which the noble Lord referred relates only to the South East of England and not to the rest of the country. I also stress that it relates to the earlier part of this year, and there has been considerable progress since then. We believe that some of the press reports, and particularly those in the Financial Times, failed to reflect accurately the spirit of the report, which was in the main fairly positive.
Nevertheless, I accept that a number of concerns were expressed, all of which, I can assure the noble Lord, we will take very seriously. I should like to stress that NACETT (the national advisory council to which I referred in my original Answer) will carry out a very detailed review of the targets in 1994. It will certainly consider whether they ought to be expanded or extended, and appropriate ways of raising awareness of those targets.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, is the Minister aware that there seems to be inadequate co-ordination between the training and enterprise councils, which after all are the spearhead of the Government's attack in this matter? While I readily agree that in some areas there is some success, will the 992 Minister concur that in some areas of the country—and the problem appears to be growing—there is not that co-ordination, particularly among the providers? The report to which the noble Lord, Lord Rochester. referred stresses the need for co-ordination—or rather the lack of it—between the various bodies. Is that not a matter to which the Government ought to be paying more attention?

§ Lord Henley
My Lords, I understand the concern. It is one of degree. I do not accept that there is quite the same degree of lack of co-ordination between the TECs and the Government as regards this matter. I can reassure the noble Lord that NACETT, the body set up by the Government but which is very much employer-led, will look at the various targets, their scope and how they can be improved.

§ Baroness Turner of Camden
My Lords, is the Minister satisfied with the quality of training that is now being provided? Is it such as to fit young people for the jobs market? Is it not a matter of considerable importance, bearing in mind that there are now very high levels of young male unemployment, with obvious social implications? What is being done to monitor the quality of training that is being given?

§ Lord Henley
My Lords, I can tell the noble Baroness that I am satisfied with the quality of the various bits of training that are on offer. The point about the national targets, which the CBI launched some two years ago, is that they were aimed at ensuring that we had the absolute minimum necessary standards to maintain our international competitiveness. The Government support those targets which the CBI launched. That is why we then launched NACETT, which will keep them under review, advise the Government on ways in which they can be met, and encourage employers to meet them.

§ Baroness Seear
My Lords, is the noble Lord satisfied that everything is being done that could be done to give full publicity to the national vocational qualifications which are coming on stream now, and about which a large number of people still know very little?

§ Lord Henley
My Lords, the same relates to the national targets. Again, obviously, it is a matter of increasing awareness. One can never say that one is totally satisfied that absolutely everything is being done. But certainly we would like to increase awareness of the NVQs. Again, that is a matter that NACETT will look at.