§ Mr. William Shelton[pursuant to his oral reply, 22 March 1983, c. 715]: I have today invited the Business and Technician Education Council and the City and Guilds of London Institute to establish joint arrangements for a national system of pre-vocational education which will include the Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education—17-plus—qualification, on behalf of and accountable to my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Education and Science and for Wales.
These arrangements will fill an important gap in our provisions for young people who wish at 16 to stay on in school or go to FE college for a year in order to continue their full-time education so as better to prepare themselves for the world of work, or for specific vocational courses.
The central role in the system will be played by a joint board for pre-vocational education accountable to my right 460W hon. Friends through the councils of the two bodies. The board will have a chairman and 13 other members. The chairman will be appointed by my right hon. Friends. The chairman and members will act in a personal capacity and will reflect the interests of teachers from schools and FE, the local authorities, industry and commerce and Wales. Five members will be nominated by the Business and Technician Education Council and five by the City and Guilds of London Institute. The Royal Society of Arts, the GCE boards collectively and the CSE boards collectively are entitled to nominate one member each. The Government's support for the work of the board will be reflected by the appointment of assessors from the Education Departments, Her Majesty's inspectorate, and the Manpower Services Commission.
The joint board will have three essential tasks:
- 1. to accredit courses, normally of one year full-time duration, for young people in schools and FE colleges from September 1983, of necessity building very closely on existing provision;
- 2. to develop more complete and coherent arrangements as urgently as possible, preferably by September 1984 and no later than September 1985, which will include the replacement of those grouped pre-vocational courses being offered by bodies for which there is provision for representation on the joint board;
- 3. to ensure co-ordination and, where appropriate, common curriculum content with relevant part-time provision and with provision made in association with the Manpower Services Commission.
My right hon. Friends are prepared to make available a grant not exceeding £150,000 per annum for three years beginning in April 1983 to help meet the launching and development costs of the joint board in its early phase of operation.