§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what percentage of the workforce in agriculture hold vocational qualifications at NVQ Level 3 or higher in Northern Ireland. [128277]
§ Mr. PearsonInformation is not available on numbers in the total agricultural labour force with vocational qualifications at NVQ Level 3 or higher. The information that is available is summarised as follows.
The social survey of farmers and farm families (excluding hired workers) carried out in 2000–01 indicated that:
7,029 farmers and regular family workers on family farms (18.9 per cent. of total) had general qualifications (excl. apprenticeships) at or above NVQ Level 3 or equivalent—as well as vocational qualifications in all disciplines, this includes "A" Levels and other non-vocational qualifications;
9,347 farmers and regular family workers on family farms (25.1 per cent. of total) had general qualifications (incl. apprenticeships) at or above NVQ Level 3 or equivalent;
2,131 farmers and regular family workers on family farms (5.7 per cent. of total) had agricultural qualifications at or above NVQ Level 3 or equivalent.
566WIn 2000, the EU Farm Structure Survey indicated that 3,888 farmers, family and regular hired workers (6.4 per cent. of workforce) had undertaken a formal agricultural course of less than two years and 2,101 people (3.5 per cent. of workforce) had undertaken a formal agricultural course of more than two years duration. However there was no assessment of level of qualification.
§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many business development training places for farmers there were in each Northern Ireland constituency in the last year for which figures are available. [R] [128278]
§ Mr. PearsonDuring the 2002–03 financial year a total of 3,617 business development training places were available for farmers on the Good Business Sense training programme.
The management information system operated by the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise cannot allocate the total places available according to Northern Ireland constituency. The following table illustrates the breakdown according to county.
Number of training places provided per county Good business sense County Antrim 482 County Armagh 420 County Down 900 County Fermanagh 765 County Londonderry 300 County Tyrone 750 Total training places 3,617