§ Mr. Charles Morrisonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what are the latest up-to-date target figures set by the Manpower Services Commission for the youth opportunities and special temporary employment programmes and what is the number of places which the Manpower Services Commission had expected to have had available by 1 February, the number of actual places negotiated, and the number of places occupied, giving each figure under the respective subheadings of the youth opportunities programme, namely, work experience on employers' premises, training workshops, community service, and project-based work experience with separate figures for the special temporary employment programme.
§ Mr. Golding,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 5 February 1979; Vol. 962, c. 27], gave the following information:
I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that its targets are to enable 187,000 young people to enter the youth opportunities programme in the 475W period September 1978 to August 1979 and to have 80,000 filled places under the programme at the end of March 1979. There is a good prospect of both these targets being met. The target for the special temporary employment programme is to maintain occupancy at a level of 25,000 filled places, and it is hoped that this level will be reached by end-June 1979. No specified targets were set for either programme for 1 February. By the end of December 1978 there had been 100,000 starts on the youth opportunities programme and 8,800 starts on the special temporary employment programme since the programmes began on 1 April, and the number of places occupied at end December was some 55,000 and 8,000 respectively. These figures cannot reliably be broken down by type of scheme except at disproportionate cost. The number of places negotiated from the beginning of the programme is as follows:
Scheme Places negotiated Work Experience on Employers Premises Premises 49,200 Project-based Work Experience 8,000 Training Workshops 3,900 Community Service 8,000 Work Preparation Courses 20,200 Special Temporary Employment Programme 16,800