§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the job prospects in Kirkby and Merseyside for school leavers in the current year.
§ Mr. John FraserImmediate indications are not promising but it is not possible to make reliable forecasts at this stage, since the process of settling school leavers into employment normally extends over the period July to November each year.
72WThe careers service provided by local education authorities is giving school leavers all possible help in finding employment and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has allocated £50 million to the Manpower Services Commission for use over the next two years in developing employment and training programmes, including those designed to help young people. The Commission has already announced, on 2nd July, a scheme to assist school leavers, sandwich course students and redundant apprentices, and further measures are under urgent consideration.
§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) whether he will take steps to stimulate employment for young people who left school at the end of the summer term;
(2) whether he will take steps to promote constructive unpaid employment in the public service or the public interest for young people who remain unemployed for over four weeks.
§ Mr. John FraserEmployment prospects for school leavers and other young people in the immediate future will depend largely on the degree of success achieved in maintaining the highest general level of employment which is consistent with anti-inflationary measures. Specific steps to stimulate employment include financial assistance under the Industry Act 1972, the creation and preservation of jobs through the new National Enterprise Board, the doubling of the regional employment premium, and the creation of Scottish and Welsh development agencies.
The careers service provided by local education authorities will give school leavers and other young people all possible help in finding employment, and the Manpower Services Commission is also giving urgent consideration to ways of improving employment and training opportunities and has already announced a scheme to create 7,000 extra industrial training places, to help redundant apprentices, sandwich course students and school leavers.
The employment of young people on local "community" projects is the method used by the existing Community Industry Scheme, but the young employees of community industry receive 73W wages, and my right hon. Friend has no plans to promote voluntary unpaid employment of this type.
§ Mr. Tierneyasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what is the estimated number of job opportunities for young persons leaving school in the city of Birmingham at the end of the present school term;
(2) how many schools leavers will be registering for employment in the city of Birmingham at the end of the present school term.
§ Mr. John FraserIt is too early to make a reliable estimate of the total number of job opportunities for summer school leavers in the City of Birmingham. The vacancies immediately available will be included in the monthly statistics to be published on 24th July.
About 10,000 young people in Birmingham are expected to leave school at the end of the summer term, but it is not yet known how many will find it necessary to register for employment.
§ Mr. Tierneyasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many young persons who left school in the city of Birmingham in the last 12 months have not yet been placed in employment.
§ Mr. John FraserOn 9th June—the latest date for which statistics are available—214 school leavers were registered as unemployed in the City of Birmingham. Statistics do not define the date on which they left school, but it is known that the great majority of them left at Easter or later.