HL Deb 11 May 1983 vol 442 cc545-6WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What decisions they have made on the recommendations in the Alvey Report under the heading "Human resources".

The Earl of Swinton

On 16th December 1982 my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science announced in another place a programme specifically designed to enhance education, training and retraining in Information Technology (IT).

The programme includes, for 1983ߝ84, provision for 70 new university posts in IT, details of which were announced by the department on 12th April; 1,000 additional post graduate studentships in universities and polytechnics through the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), primarily to enable graduates in subjects not directly related to IT to convert to that field; 45 SERC fellowships in the IT field; and an increase in the number of places for students taking relevant first degree, higher diploma and higher certificate courses by over 1,000. The announcement also mentioned right honourable friend's intention to make further increases in the following two years.

As to schools, Her Majesty's Government have recently announced an expansion of their micro-electronics education programme which has been a successful agent in establishing the effective use of microcomputers in schools. That programme, which is providing training materials for 50,000 teachers, is an essential complement to the Department of Industry's programme which aims to put a computer into every primary and secondary school in the country.

These measures go substantially beyond the recommendations of the Alvey Report. Together they should ensure that human resources are built up, strengthened and sustained, that manpower for the programme will be available and that the results of the programme can best he exploited to maximum national advantage.