§ Mr. Terry Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of new engineering apprenticeships (a) starting and (b) completed as a result of the work of the engineering industries training board in each of the latest two years for which data are available.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe engineering industry training board reports that it was notified of 10,857 new registrations for craft and technician apprenticeships for the year ended 31 March 1983, and 8,911 for the year ended 31 March 1984.
The board issued 13,137 certificates of craftsmanship to apprentices completing a second training module in the year ended 31 March 1983 and 11,919 certificates in the year ended 31 March 1984.
The number entering traditional apprenticeships will increasingly become irrelevant as a measure of the amount of skill training being undertaken in industry, due to the reform of existing training arrangements and public funding of first-year training under the youth training scheme.