PICKUP (Hansard, 16 March 1988)

§ Mr. Wyn Roberts

The Welsh Office joined the PICKUP programme in 1984 with the appointment of the PICKUP agent for Wales. I am pleased to be able to report that progress to date has been steady and continuous. A second full-time officer was appointed in September 1987 565W who is primarily engaged in the development of in-service training for college lecturers involved with running PICKUP courses.

The eight local education authorities in Wales have appointed PICKUP co-ordinators with funding from education support grant arrangements and six of the colleges of the University of Wales have received Welsh Office funding to promote and develop PICKUP provision through the appointment of co-ordinators.

Major advances have been achieved through the local collaborative project programme, funded jointly with the MSC, with a total of 30 projects being commissioned during 1986–87 involving some 140 firms and 24 colleges. An important feature of the LCP programme was the launch in 1987 of the Technology Centre for Wales, located with WINTECH, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, and the Language Exports Centre for Wales based at University College, Swansea.

The Wales Advisory Body has also been actively concerned with the development of PICKUP activities, allocating funds to the Polytechnic of Wales and five higher education institutions to fund the appointment of PICKUP co-ordinators. Also, three of the colleges of the University of Wales have successfully bid for PICKUP funding from the University Grants Committee.

The response from participants has also been encouraging. A survey of PICKUP activities in colleges undertaken in November 1986 indicated that some 6,800 individuals were receiving updating/re-training during that month. The last two years have seen increases of about 40 per cent. in the number of PICKUP courses provided and 100 per cent. in the number of students benefiting from those courses.