§ Sir W. EDGEasked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the statement by his divisional controller that in the heavy engineering trades people who in the North were recognised as skilled workers were not sufficiently trained to take up engineering work in the South, he can give the reasons for this inadequate training; and how it is proposed to overcome it in the future?
§ Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEADThe statement made by the divisional controller was to the effect that men registered for skilled engineering employment and remaining unemployed are frequently found on investigation to be incapable of undertaking highly skilled work in which there are vacancies. There is nothing surprising in this position and in general my right hon. Friend regards it as the responsibility of the industry itself to make arrangements for securing a sufficient supply of skilled operatives. There are, however, a certain number of cases of men of engineering experience in areas of heavy unemployment who would probably be enabled to re-enter skilled employment if they were given what may be described as a "refresher course" in one of the Government training centres. The experiment is therefore being made of admitting a small number of such men to courses of this kind, and the progress of this experiment will be carefully watched.