§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the age groups and the ethnic groups who receive special help to relieve unemployment; and if he will show the types of assistance available.
§ Mr. GoldingMy Department, together with the Manpower Services Commission, has made special arrangements to relieve unemployment among young people, who have been particularly severely affected by the present recession. The youth opportunities programme, which will when fully operational offer 230,000 work experience and training opportunities annually to unemployed young people, came into effect on 1st April. The Government have asked the Manpower Services Commission to ensure that no Easter or summer school leaver who is unemployed the following Easter should be without the offer of an opportunity under the programme which builds on a number of earlier measures including the work experience programme and the commission's special training courses for young people.
Young people have also benefited from the annual programmes of special training measures through which, since 1975, the commission has encouraged and enabled industry to maintain its recruitment of apprentices and other long-term trainees, from the strengthening of the local authority careers service and from the expansion of the community industry scheme for disadvantaged young people.
508WYoung people aged 19 to 24 will be one of the groups given priority under the special temporary employment programme, which came into operation on 1st April, through which the Manpower Services Commission will support some 25,000 places annually on projects providing temporary work of social value particularly for the long-term unemployed.
The only other age group for whom special help is available is workers within one year of statutory pensionable age, who can leave work early on a tax-free allowance under the job release scheme, thereby creating a job for an unemployed person.
The commission's services are open to all who need them, regardless of race or colour, but the following provision has been made with the needs of ethnic minority groups particularly in mind. The commission has for some time funded experimental courses provided by voluntary organisations for young people from ethnic minorities who need to be approached other than through the public employment service. Two pilot language courses for unemployed adult immigrants have been held and are currently being evaluated, and the commission also supports the National Centre for Industrial Language Training. Finally, the commission has made special arrangements to ensure that members of ethnic minority groups benefit fully from the two new programmes for unemployed people, the youth opportunities programme and the special temporary employment programme, and will be closely monitoring the effectiveness of the programmes in meeting the needs of these groups.