§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment what action he is taking to overcome the shortage of software specialists.
§ Mr. Jim LesterI am advised by the Manpower Services Commission that courses under its recently announced programme of grant support for training of computer programmers, systems analysts622W and real-time programmers are due to start in September of this year. It is expected that the programme will proceed on the scale already announced. In addition to the introduction of three new types of courses in colleges and polytechnics for people in employment, the programme provides for an expansion of training under the TOPS scheme for programmers and systems analysts and a doubling of the numbers trained under the threshold scheme for unemployed young people.