§ Mr. Sheermanasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the adult training strategy.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 28 February 1985, c. 224.]: The Government's adult training strategy encompasses a number of initiatives to stimulate adult training.
The national adult training campaign, launched in November with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of adult training, is now underway. Action in support of the campaign is being developed at both national and local level.
The Commission is working jointly with the Education Departments to promote effective collaboration and acting on training at local level. Encouraging progress is being 49W made and 116 individual projects have been approved to date. We are developing new methods of delivering training by extending the best practices in the use of open learning, supporting the development of new training technologies and encouraging work on the training needs of trainers.
Our own adult training programmes are being redirected from 1985–86 to make them more responsive to employers' needs, to stimulate employers' own training efforts and to provide further help for unemployed people who need training at a more basic level.
These changes will enable the Manpower Services Commission to support the training of 250,000 adults a year by 1986–87—more than double the number helped in 1983–84.