§ 32. Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to ensure that schools are aware of the needs of industry.
§ Mr. William SheltonThe Department has already given substantial attention to this matter and will continue to do so. "The School Curriculum", our guidance document published in March, stressed the importance of establishing links between schools and industry. A publication from HMI inspectors, "Schools and Working Life: some Initiatives", also issued in March, described a number of ways in which schools and industry are already working together to increase the relevance of the curriculum to the requirements of working life. The series of regional meetings between representatives of the educational and the industrial worlds, held under Ministerial chairmanship and completed in June, proved to be valuable in improving mutual understanding between education and industry.
The Department keeps in close touch with the Industry-Education Unit of the Department of Industry and with a number of other bodies working in this field. We shall shortly be considering the recommendations on improving the effectiveness of school-industry links made by Mr. Neville Cooper in his important report on link activities undertaken by the major organisations involved, in the light of the many comments on the report which have been made by interested parties.