§ Mr. Ray Powellasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will consider, in the light of difficulties experienced by the Manpower Services Commission in securing industrial placements owing to contractions in local industry, that job sampling training opportunities scheme programmes should be operated with selected colleges of technology acting as training bases and with local industrialists with a view to subsequent training placement.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that resources currently available would not permit developments of this kind, useful though they might be in helping individuals to select the training most suitable for them. A number of courses offering job sampling and work experience are already provided under the Training Opportunies Scheme (TOPS). It is also current practice to make arrangements in suitable cases for TOPS trainees, in particular from skillcentres, to be given short job trials with employers to bridge the gap between training and employment. Despite the difficult economic conditions the latest avilable follow-up figures indicate that over 60 per cent. of those who completed TOPS vocational training during the second quarter of 1980 were in employment three months later and of these 80 per cent. were using the skills they had been taught.