Business and Technician Education Council

HC Deb 08 February 1988 vol 127 c48W

Mr. Harry Greenway

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the future of the Business Technician Education Advisory Council and its services.

Mr. Jackson

I understand that my hon. Friend is referring to the Business and Technician Education Council. This is a non-departmental public body established in 1983 as a successor to the former Business Education Council and Technician Education Council, themselves established in the mid-1970s to validate a wide range of vocational courses and examinations at technician level and equivalent. It is one of many bodies, operating in the vocational qualifications field, albeit the only one with NDPB status under my Department. It has an important part to play in the much wider rationalisation of vocational qualifications now being undertaken under the aegis of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications. The council is currently taking steps to improve the marketing of its qualifications and its links with other bodies, and is reforming its structures and services to those ends. My right hon. Friend welcomes these steps, and looks to the council to continue its efforts to improve its own efficiency and responsiveness to the changing context in education and training.