§ Mr. BarronTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many, and what proportion of vacancies advertised by his Department, and by each of his Department's agencies, in the last three years have listed the attainment of national vocational qualifications as an acceptable entry requirement; and, of those, how many have required (i) Level 1 NVQs, (ii) Level 2 NVQs, (iii) Level 3 NVQs and (iv) other level NVQs. [22980]
§ Sir John WheelerThe Northern Ireland Civil Service Commission recruits centrally all permanent non-industrial staff for the northern Ireland departments and agencies.
During the last three years, the Northern Ireland Civil Service Commission advertised one vacancy for which specifically a level 3 NVQ was an entry requirement. This represented less than 0.5 per cent. of all vacancies advertised. Where appropriate, advertisements make clear that applications will be considered from candidates with relevant formal qualifications considered by the commissioners to be of an equivalent or higher standard than those stated.
In addition Northern Ireland Departments run competitions for industrial and casual staff. The Department of Economic Development advertised one vacancy, listing as advantageous, the possession of NVQ assessor award D32/33. This represented 2 per cent. of competitions run by DED.
The remaining Northern Ireland departments have not used NVQs as an entry requirement for industrial and casual staff.