§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Employment what financial arrangements exist to encourage employers to recruit young people, particularly to undertake and complete apprenticeships.
§ Mr. GoldingIndustrial training boards have standing arrangements to encourage employers through provision of grants or exemption from levy to undertake training of apprentices. In view of current economic conditions, the Government have made some £86 million available to the Manpower Services Commission over the period 1975–1977, mainly for the payment, through industrial training boards, of grants to encourage employers to recruit and retain additional trainees, and for the provision of first year training, by the boards themselves, for young people unable to find an employer. This extra help has resulted in some 21,000 additional training places being made available during 1975–76 and the number in 1976–77 should be still higher.
In addition, about 25,000 young people under 20 have benefited from the recruitment subsidy for school leavers scheme at a cost of £2.5 million. This scheme provides the employers, who take on young people, with a subsidy of £5 per week for 26 weeks.