HC Deb 16 December 1980 vol 996 cc146-7W
Mr. Skeet

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will compare the prospects for school leavers entering planned training in the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Mr. Jim Lester

I have no recent information which could form the basis of a reliable comparison of the opportunities currently available for school leavers to enter planned training in the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Information compiled for the MSC's review body which examined training arrangements under the Employment and Training Act 1973 suggests that during the period between 1976 and 1979 about half of all young people who reached minimum school leaving age in the Federal Republic of Germany entered apprenticeships compared with a much lower, and roughly equivalent, proportion in France and Great Britain. About 40 per cent. of the same group of young people in France entered full-time vocational education compared with much lower proportions in West Germany and Great Britain. Outside the field of apprenticeships about 40 per cent. of the same group of young people in Great Britain were trained entirely on the job compared with much lower proportions in West Germany and France. However, these comparisons are not entirely reliable due to differences between the three countries in the definition of training and education and in the pattern of institutional arrangements for the training of young people.