§ 38. Mr. Colin Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is satisfied that there are sufficient opportunities for people to acquire new industrial skills and that these newly acquired skills meet recognised standards.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonNo. The Government and Manpower Services Commission are anxious both to develop initial skill training arrangements so that more young people have access to training to recognised standards in a broad range of skills, and to open up more opportunities for adults to acquire, increase or update their skills during the course of their working lives. The commission recently published, with Government support, a consultative document—"A new Training initiative"—to encourage debate and action on these vital issues. Meanwhile, though recognising that it is primarily industry's responsibility to train and retrain sufficient 325W people to meet changing skill needs, the Government are giving substantial assistance, notably through the Manpower Services Commission's training opportunities and training for skills programmes and the Department of Industry's microprocessor applications project.