§ Dr. Glynasked the Secretary of State for Employment what action he proposes to take in view of the fact that the substantial reduction in financial support given to group training schemes by the Engineering Industrial Training Board over the next four years will result in a serious reduction in vital training needs at a time when the United Kingdom is short of skilled labour.
§ Mr. GoldingI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the Engineering Industry Training Board's policy of a phased reduction of support grants for group training associations is in line with the Commission's own policy of encouraging groups to move towards an optimum level of self-support. Both the Commission and the Board regard group training as a most important training facility and their policies, which will be applied flexibly, are not expected to reduce grant support to levels which will impair that facility. The Commission's policy includes the provision of financial support for establishing new groups and for the development of existing groups.
The Government have endorsed the Manpower Services Commission's recently published programme for action "Training for Skills", which proposes ways of safeguarding the future skill needs of industry. Support for training to be given under this programme will encourage the full use of group training associations.