§ Mr. Wainwrightasked the Paymaster General what is his Department's latest estimate of the number of full-time 100W apprentices currently employed in British manufacturing industries; and what was the comparable number for the same period in 1979.
§ Mr. TrippierThere were 73,200 full-time apprentices employed in british manufacturing industries in March 1985. For 1979, the most comparable figure is 155,000.
The numbers entering traditional apprenticeships will become increasingly irrelevant as a measure of the real level of skills training being undertaken by industry because of both the modernisation of existing training arrangements and the substantial provision of initial skills training now taking place under YTS.