§ 30. Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for Employment what plans his Department has to create new training 484W centres for the purpose of producing skilled operators for the oil and gas industries who could replace the foreign nationals at present carrying out the highly skilled technical work in these industries.
§ Mr. Jim LesterI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that it has no plans to create new training centres. Facilities are currently provided for training in the skills necessary for the development of our offshore oil and gas reserves in training centres at Montrose, operated by the petroleum industry training board, and at Fort William, and through other programmes operated by the petroleum and engineering industry training boards and under the Manpower Services Commission's training opportunities programme. Priority will continue to be given to training in these skills.