§ Mr. Willeyasked the Minister of Education which of the recommendations of the McMeeking Report on further education for commerce have been implemented; and what steps are being taken with regard to the other recommendations.
§ Sir D. EcclesThe Government accepted the McMeeking Report and commended it to the local education authorities and other interests concerned. Good progress has been made in implementing the recommendations. In particular, the system of national awards in commerce has been completely reorganised. There has been a wide response from employers and students to the courses already introduced. Over 400 part-time courses leading to the new Ordinary and Higher National Certificates and over 100 full-time Ordinary 175W National Diploma courses were offered in England and Wales this session.
Most of the leading commercial professional bodies have signified their willingness to grant exemption from certain of their own examination requirements to holders of the new awards. The courses can be arranged so that students can specialise in particular fields such as sales and marketing and the export trade, and they offer ample opportunity for the study of commercially useful foreign languages. Commercial sandwich courses leading to the Higher National Diploma in Business Studies, an award which approaches a pass degree in standard, are to start in colleges and departments of commerce next September, and the National Advisory Council on Education for Industry and Commerce are looking into the possibility of establishing further advanced sandwich and full-time courses in Business Studies at honours degree level. To meet the expanding demand the provision of accommodation and equipment for commercial education has been given a prominent place in current building programmes, and day release to attend commercial courses is growing though not as rapidly as I would like.