§ Mrs. Shirley Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many apprenticeships were started (a) in the engineering industry, (b) in the construction industry and (c) in total in the years 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe numbers of first-year apprentices recruited by firms in scope to the engineering industry training board were as follows:
Year Numbers 1979–80 22,822 1980–81 20,541 1981–82 14,639 These figures relate to the training year, which starts in August. The figure for 1982–83 is not yet available but is expected to be about 11,000.
For firms in scope to the construction industry training board the number of first year apprentices recruited were:
Year Numbers 1979 20,770 1980 21,874 1981 17,284 These figures related to calendar years. The figure for 1982 is not yet available.
Figures for total apprentice recruitment are not available, but estimates based on extrapolations from industrial training organisations' statistics suggest that about 100,000 apprentices were recruited in the 1979–80 training year and 90,000 in 1980–81. The provisional estimate for 1981–82 is 60,000.