§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment what action he is taking on the recommendations made in the latest National Economic Development Council report on microelectronics.
§ Mr. Golding,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 8 February 1979; Vol. 962, c. 239], gave the following information:
The progress report 1979 of the electronic components sector working party of the NEDC, published in January, contains two recommendations relating to my Department. The first of these deals with the need to meet the growing fears among trade unions that microelectronic technology will cause large-scale unemployment and suggest a greater dissemination of available information. It is not possible for anyone to say with any accuracy, at this stage, what effects microelectronic technology will have on employment. In my own Department a study group on microelectronics has been set up to look at the potential impact of the technology on employment over the next 5 to 10 years. It contributed the results of some of its studies to the CPRS report that was made available following the meeting of the NEDC on 6 December. It hopes 474W to produce its own report in the summer of this year.
The second recommendation is for a Government initiative to overcome what the report describes as a current and growing shortage of skilled personnel. The Government have taken steps to support the training of skilled and semiskilled workers by industry in order to try to ensure that shortages of such workers do not develop. The Manpower Services Commission has put in hand, through the national training system, a three-year programme beginning this year to ensure that computer manufacturers and users expand their training in software skills and new areas of skill for which systematic training has hitherto not been available generally. My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Employment, for Industry and for Education and Science presented a joint paper to the National Economic Development Council on 6 December which set out, among other things the action the Government are taking to ensure that skill shortages do not become a constraint. Copies of this paper were laid in the Library of the House.