§ Mr. Patrick Jenkinasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware of the difficulty and effort involved in ascertaining the cost to industry of on the job training of non-craftsmen operatives, particularly in industries where the training is peculiar to the establishment concerned and where the skills and knowledge acquired by the operatives have little or no value in any other employment within the parent industry; and whether he will indicate to industrial training boards the desirability in such cases of restricting the making of grants under the Industrial Training Act, 1964, to firms undertaking off the job training for their non-craftsmen employees.
61W
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsThe Answer to the first part of the question is "Yes". As regards the second part, I would not think it right to discourage Training Boards from using their levy and grant arrangements where they see fit to improve the quality of training on the job provided by firms in their industries.