§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many different national vocational qualifications are currently available; and of these which have (a) never been awarded and (b) been awarded to only one person. [3593]
§ Mr. Paice[holding answer 11 November 1996]: I am informed by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications that 843 national vocational qualifications were accredited by them at 30 June 1996. A total of 351 of these had not, at that date, attracted full awards and 39 had attracted one award. Individual NVQs are subject to accreditation at regular intervals, and, given the time it takes after accreditation for awards to become available to centres, and individuals to train towards them, at any one time a considerable proportion of individual NVQs will have attracted few awards. Of those awards available at March 1996 and which were accredited before April 1993, 38 had attracted no awards.