§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many young people were being trained as apprentices (a) by industry and (b) by training boards at the latest convenient date: and 18W how this compares with the figures for one year ago.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 31 July 1980, vol. 989, c. 782–3]: I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the information requested is not available in respect of young people trained as apprentices by industry.
The numbers of young people whose initial training was sponsored by ITBs under training award schemes were 1,361 in the 1979–80 training year and 4,263 in the 1978–79 training year.
In addition, nearly 20,000 apprenticeships and other forms of long-term training for young people were supplied under the training for skills programme in 1979–80, and approximately 33,000 under the earlier special measures programme.