HC Deb 04 February 1958 vol 581 cc166-7W
Mr. Pitman

asked the Minister of Education whether he is now able to announce his proposals for the improvement of training grants as recommended by Dr. Willis Jackson's Committee on the Supply and Training of Technical Teachers.

Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd

The local authority associations have agreed with me that new scales of grant should be established from the beginning of the 1958–59 session for students who enter the one-year courses of pre-service training at technical training colleges. The full details of these scales cannot be settled before the completion of the triennial review of the standard figures of maintenance for students at universities and of training college grants which is now in progress. All students eligible for assistance, however, will receive increased personal grants, with increased grants for dependants and a special grant for those who have to maintain a separate home while in training. There is general agreement with the Committee's views that a student who is receiving grant at one of these colleges should, if he is married and has one or more children and has to maintain a separate home, be no worse off financially than if he were earning the basic minimum salary on the scale for Grade A Assistants in technical colleges (at present £475). Courses will also be arranged for teachers already in service in the technical colleges and further discussions are proceeding about the arrangements to be made for this purpose.