§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he intends to take to encourage greater liaison between secondary schools and industry.
§ Mr. DunnLocal liaison arrangements between secondary schools and industry are essentially matters for local education authorities and local employers. The Government wish to encourage such activities and are themselves providing direct financial help through, for example, the technical and vocational education initiative and the lower attaining pupils' programme. The Government already support, in some cases financially, the activities of the school/industry link organisations and they are also giving their full backing to Industry Year 1986. This will, amongst other things, encourage local 119W firms and schools to develop new links and strengthen those which already exist. There are, therefore, no plans for further central initiatives at present.