§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Employment how it is intended to improve arrangements for the training and retraining of adults by encouraging close collaboration at local level between employers and those providing training, as proposed in paragraph 40 of the White Paper "Training for Jobs", Cmnd. 9135.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe Government have agreed that the Manpower Services Commission and the education departments in England, Scotland and Wales should make available and manage jointly £1.35 million in 1984–85 to provide launching support for local initiatives by employers and providers of adult vocational education and training. They will work together to define local training needs and how they could best be met. This will build on existing initiatives, including the commission's Open Tech programme and the Department of Education and Science's professional industrial and commercial updating—PICKUP—programme, whose regional agents will be involved in running the scheme in England.