Baroness WARD of NORTH TYNESIDEasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will arrange for the written replies promised by Lord Jacques to those who took part in the debate on training and facilities for service and recreation for the unemployed on Tuesday, 2nd December, to be printed in the Official Report.
§ Lord JACQUESYes. I wrote to the noble Baroness, Lady Seear, in the following terms
The Baroness Seear,The Garden Flat,44 Blomfield Road,London W9.6 January 76
I am sorry to have taken so long to write to you giving the information about Government measures to help the unemployed I promised during the course of our debate on Lord Balfour's unstarred question on 2 December. Unfortunately, some of the information proved to be less readily obtainable than I had hoped.
In view of the wide interest in these measures expressed during the debate I am sending you a comprehensive reply to all the points raised. I am sending copies of this letter to Lady 117WA Elles, as it also covers the points which she raised, and to Lady Ward.
(1) Occupations in which there are shortages at present.
It is not, I am afraid, possible to provide precise statistics of labour shortages because not all vacancies are notified to the Employment Service Agency, from whom vacancy statistics are obtained. However, labour supply difficulties are experienced fairly widely at present for engineering craftsmen, police, qualified nursing staff, hotel staff, local transport staff and sewing machinists. A more detailed picture of shortages can be obtained from the tables on pages 1164–74 of the November 1975 issue of the Department of Employment Gazette. Less detailed summaries are given on pages 1160–63.
(2) Where shortages will occur when the economy expands.
The nature of each successive economic cycle varies sufficiently to make it impassible to forecast the precise occupations and localities in which manpower shortages would occur on various assumptions about the growth of the economy. However, cycles are sufficiently similar to indicate persistent problems with several crafts and technician occupations in engineering and a more limited range in construction. The Manpower Services Commission, its Agencies and the Department of Employment are now attempting to identify these more precisely.
(3) Regional distribution and occupancy of training places. I attach at appendix 1 a table giving the information for skillcentres. You will see that, as I said on 2nd December, average occupancy is running at 85 per cent. Only in the North East is it below 80 per cent., and in the North West it is over 95 per cent. Training places at Colleges of Further Education and employers' establishments are the subject of individual negotiation with the colleges and employers in the light of local demand for training and the availability of accommodation. Thus, because the stock of training places is not fixed, as in skillcentres, it is not possible to give similar information for CFEs about levels of occupancy. However, for the purposes 118WA of comparison, on 31st October 1975 about 25,600 people were being trained in CFEs and residential colleges for disabled people and 1,528 in employers' establishments.
National and local advertising campaigns to attract trainees for under-occupied classes are proving very successful. In fact the TSA sees as its main problem in the immediate future the need to provide more facilities to meet the increasing demand.
(4) Changing people's attitude to training. The Training Services Agency is engaged in a major publicity campaign this winter designed to encourage both employers and employees to take advantage of the training opportunities which are now available. The campaign includes both television and Press publicity: some of the publicity carries the specific message that sometimes skills can become obsolete and that in such cases people ought to consider acquiring another skill.
(5) An enhanced unemployment benefit for trainees unable to find a job. It is desirable that people should seek retraining during periods of high unemployment and, by acquiring a valuable skill, greatly improve their employment prospects when the demand for labour improves. Applicants for training who are already in employment are warned of the risks involved in giving up their employment. The situation of a person who is already unemployed when he or she applies for training is, of course, different. However, long-term employment prospects are taken into account when applications for training are considered.
The Training Services Agency tells me that it does not find that there is, at present, a strong case for extra financial compensation. The trainee enjoys an enhanced income (as compared with unemployment benefit) during his training, at the end of which he possesses a usable skill and has a better chance of employment than his unskilled colleagues.
(6) Future trends in job opportunities.
The TSA indicated in its Five Year Plan, published last year, that the development of the Training Opportunities Scheme must take account of the needs of the labour market. The 119WA Agency is, therefore, developing studies both at national and local level to ensure that training is related more closely to expected labour market developments. In setting up new courses it is also guided by advice from its regional offices who are well informed on local employment prospects. The Agency is paying particular attention to training for the service industries, which are indeed accounting for a steadily increasing proportion of total employment. For example, the numbers trained for office occupations have shown a large increase in the last few years, having risen from 3,900 in 1972 to 14,300 in 1974. Nearly all this training takes place in Colleges of Further Education or in private colleges but the TSA is planning to supplement and support it by establishing an Office Training Centre in Croydon in September 1976.
(7) European Social Fund and Regional Development Fund.
Although assistance from the European Social Fund is available for retraining, rehabilitation and resettlement of workers, the job creation programme is outside its scope.
Altogether the United Kingdom may claim £150 million from the European Regional Development Fund during the three years 1975–1977. The United Kingdom quota for 1975 is £35 million, although this can be exceeded if the other Member States fail to take up their full allocation. In fact this has happened in 1975, and the United Kingdom has obtained nearly £36 million in grants from the Fund. This allocation was announced in two tranches, the first in October for a total of £8.8 million relating to Government advance factories. The second allocation of aid, announced on 18th December, was for a total grant of just over £27 million and covered 294 industrial infrastructure projects in the United Kingdom. The 111 industrial projects approved by the European Commission during 1975 for a total contribution from the Fund of £12.2 million are estimated to create over 1,300 new jobs. It is not possible to give estimates of the employment provided by the advance factories until occupiers are found for them.
120WA(8) The Employment Transfer Scheme.
I mentioned the increased allocation of money to this scheme in my reply to the debate, but you may wish to have more detailed information. In the year ending 30th September 1975, 13,580 workers were assisted under the scheme, and appendix 2 shows the nett gains and losses region by region.
The Government have made an additional £7 million available during 1976 to further encourage the mobility of labour giving a total sum of approximately £12 million. This has allowed the Employment Service Agency to start from 5th November 1975 a new Job Search Scheme which provides assistance to jobseekers who are prepared to seek jobs beyond daily travelling distance of their homes, and to make improvements in the rate of grants and allowances available under the ETS to those who have found such jobs.
(9) Time off for retraining.
Under the French Act, which was mentioned in the debate, there are certain qualified rights of accumulating educational/training leave of absence. The main purpose is to improve the employee's competence in a field chosen preferably with the employer's consent. There is no similar provision under United Kingdom legislation and at the moment the Government do not contemplate introducing such provision although to encourage redundant workers to undertake suitable retraining and so speed up their redeployment the Training Services Agency does offer TOPS courses to workers who have been declared redundant but before they have been discharged. During the period of training before the discharge date the employer continues to pay the trainee his former earnings and receives from the TSA the basic training allowance.
(10) Unemployed School-leavers.
In my reply I gave the House information about the number of unemployed school-leavers: I was also asked to comment upon figures issued by the Institute of Careers Officers. On 13th November, 185,000 young people under the age of 20 were registered as unemployed in Great Britain, a fall of 21,000 on the previous months figures. 121WA I am afraid I cannot comment on the figures which the ICO has mentioned, but there does not seem to be much conflict between its figure of 200,000 and the official figure for unemployed young people under 20 years of age.
(11) Job Creation Programme.
I gave the House figures about the progress of the Manpower Services Commission's Job Creation Programme, but it may be of interest if I now give more recent information as the scheme is rapidly developing. By 13th December, 276 projects had been approved, providing just over 4,000 jobs at a cost of £4.4 million. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that a further £10 million
APPENDIX 1 (a)TRAINING PLACES (b)OCCUPANCY PERCENTAGE RATES IN SKILLCENTRES AT 31 OCTOBER 1975 Region Industry Group Scotland North East North West Midlands (a) (b) (a) (b) (a) (b) (a) (b) Construction 288 91.0 492 74.4 569 97.2 394 82.0 Engineering Production 484 74.0 498 71.7 505 91.5 769 82.1 Engineering Servicing 49 77.6 164 65.2 85 78.8 144 84.7 Electrical/Electronic 184 100.0 286 95.5 197 99.5 282 96.8 Plant and Automotive 359 90.3 622 78.8 337 98.2 440 88.0 General Servicing 36 91.7 58 82.8 36 97.2 24 66.7 Miscellaneous Skills 28 64.3 38 73.7 55 92.7 31 100.0 Short Industrial Courses 66 80.3 118 61.0 50 94.0 21 71.4 Occupational Selection Courses* 20 100.0 — — 3 100.0 — — Grand Totals 1,494 86.3 2,473 76.1 1,834 95.1 2,105 85.4
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Region Industry Group Wales/West South East London Great Britain (a) (b) (a) (b) (a) (b) (a) (b) Construction 653 86.4 649 83.7 527 89.6 3,572 86.3 Engineering Production 607 72.5 607 71.0 543 73.5 4,210 76.5 Engineering Servicing 197 75.1 145 75.9 106 76.4 890 75.6 Electrical/Electronic 229 100.0 262 99.2 222 98.6 1,662 98.3 Plant and Automotive 360 87.5 488 87.7 336 91.7 2,942 87.8 General Servicing — — 59 83.1 96 84.4 309 84.8 Miscellaneous Skills 53 62.3 54 81.5 110 92.7 369 83.2 Short Industrial Courses 148 70.9 — — — — 403 72.5 Occupational Selection Courses* 15 100.0 — — 11 100.0 49 100.0 Grand Totals 2,247 82.3 2,264 82.4 1,940 86.2 14,357 84.3 *No fixed allocation of places. will be made available to expand the scheme. I understand from the MSC that the original grant of £30 million will in fact provide more jobs than the 15,000 originally estimated. People employed under the scheme are paid the rate for the job which, in the case of young people, is likely to be much nearer £25 per week than the £50 per week maximum. The decision to limit the grant for materials to 10 per cent. of labour costs was taken to concentrate other available funds on the creation of jobs: the more that goes into materials, the less there is available to create jobs. In the majority of projects unemployed people have been taken on to help with the administration and supervision of the projects."
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APPENDIX 2 EMPLOYMENT TRANSFER SCHEME—TOTAL MOVEMENT YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 1975 Area Imports Exports Net imports (+ or -) London— North West 919 42 +877 North East 434 32 +402 South 423 63 +360 South East 496 243 +253 Southern 1,163 321 +842 Eastern 824 349 +475 South West— Assisted 228 749 -521 Remainder 277 400 -123 North West 687 999 -312 Manchester 280 362 -82 Merseyside 374 808 -434 Wales 589 1,328 -739 Western— Assisted 14 80 -66 Remainder 773 241 +532 West Midlands 495 327 +168 Scotland West 743 1,747 -1,004 Scotland East and North 2,715 2,277 +438 North East 544 1,360 -816 East Pennine 965 1,185 -220 East Midlands— Assisted 234 409 -175 Remainder 403 258 +145 Total 13,580 13,580 Note: A movement within an Area appears as an "import" and an "export".