§ Lieut. - Colonel CROFTasked the Minister of Labour whether representations have been received from Bournemouth as a result of the conference between the Chamber of Trade and the local employment committee, urging that steps should be taken to provide training for all ex-service men who desire it and who are at present unskilled owing to the fact that their services during the War have prevented them from learning a trade; and whether any action will be taken?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI have received the representations referred to by my hon. and gallant Friend. Fit ex-service men who, on account of joining the Forces at a comparatively early age, did not begin learning a skilled trade, can receive training, under schemes already in operation, where agreement with the trade concerned can be secured. Moreover, in the cases of ex-service men who were apprentices on enlistment, there are agreed schemes in the skilled trades generally which provide for the completion of the apprenticeship, and for State assistance during such completion. There are forty agreed schemes covering about 800 different trades, and under them 38,017 apprentices have been accepted up to date. My hon. and gallant Friend will no doubt appreciate that the first call upon our training facilities must be for disabled ex-service men, of whom we still have, I regret to say, 23,626 on the waiting list for training.