HC Deb 20 November 1984 vol 68 cc129-30W
14. Mr. Wolfson

asked the Secretary of State for Employment when he expects the adult training campaign to be launched.

32. Mr. Lester

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the adult training campaign.

Mr. Tom King

This morning I joined other ministerial colleagues, the chairman of the Manpower Services Commission and the director-general of the CBI to launch the adult training campaign.

The purpose of the campaign is to achieve a real change in attitudes to the importance of training at all levels.

31. Mr. Baldrey

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what initiatives the Government are taking to stimulate adult training.

Mr. Peter Morrison

The Government's adult training strategy encompasses a number of initiatives to stimulate adult training. In his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. Wolfson) earlier, my right hon. Friend referred to this morning's launch of the adult training campaign. Action is being taken to ensure that resources available to the Manpower Services Commission are redirected to support training more closely related to employer's needs and to stimulate employer's own training efforts. Changes are being introduced into our adult training programmes to test new approaches to job-related training and provide further help for unemployed people who need training at a more basic level. Encouraging progress is also being made with another new programme, run jointly by the Manpower Services Commission and the Education Departments, which supports local collaboration between employers and training providers to define training needs and explore possible ways of meeting them. To date, nearly 90 individual projects have been approved. We have also recently issued a consultation paper on a proposed experimental training loans scheme which will give individuals more chance to invest in their own training and which would involve the Government sharing the loan with existing lending institutions; £5 million has been set aside for 1985–86 which could benefit some 10,000 adults.