§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many training places now exist in adult training and retraining centres in Wales; whether this figure represents any increase over the figure of 2,085 given on 17th December 1974: and what plans there are to add new places in 1975.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that at the end of March of. there were 2,223 places available for vocational trainees under the Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS) in Wales.
This figure cannot be compared with the figure of 2,085 given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales on 19th December 1974— [Vol. 883, c. 420.]—which referred to places in local authority social services departments' training centres.
The Training Services Agency is committed to increasing substantially the numbers of people trained each year under TOPS. Since the start of the summer term in colleges of further education the number of places available to TOPS trainees in Wales has increased by nearly 20W 300. A new skillcentre in Newport (Gwent) and a major extension of the Wrexham skillcentre will both open this year and will, when fully operational, add 174 and 80 additional places respectively.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people completed courses in 1974 under Government or Training Services Agency's TOPS schemes; and what courses these were in each case.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the numbers of people who completed courses under TOPS in 1974 were:
All groups of which 45,416 Engineering 13,349 Construction 6,420 Clerical/Commercial 14,320 Automotive Trades 4,029 Others 7,298