Employment Training (Hansard, 2 November 1988)

§ Mr. Leighton
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current size of the client group for employment training.

§ Mr. Nicholls
All people aged 18 to 59 inclusive who have been unemployed and available for work for six months or longer are eligible to join employment training. In addition, some other people who have been out of work for shorter periods are also eligible to join. At 14 July 1988, some 1,250,000 18 to 59-year-olds had been registered as unemployed for six months or longer. All these people, together with some others, will be eligible for employment training.
660W

§ Mrs. Ann Winterton
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will introduce regulations to ensure that local authorities and other agencies administering the employment training scheme recruit only tutors and supervisors who can demonstrate an appropriate qualification or relevant experience in the subject in the teaching of which they are involved; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Nicholls
It is vital that the people who organise and deliver employment training have the necessary skills and competence to do so. To that end, training agents and training managers will need to meet stringent criteria in this area as part of the process of obtaining approved training agent or training manager status—without which they will not be able to continue with employment training. At the same time, considerable help is being given to assist training agents and managers to develop the skills of their staff. For the remainder of this year, over £6 million is available for that purpose, with some £11.5 million in 1989–90.
I am satisfied that these measures will help ensure that training agents and training managers to develop their staff so that the necessary standards are met.

§ Mr. Madden
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total cost, to date(a) of establishing ET in the Bradford travel-to-work area and (b) of promoting and publicising ET in the area; and what is the estimated total of both costs over the next six months in Bradford.

§ Mr. Nicholls
It is estimated that expenditure on employment training in the Bradford travel-to-work area up to the end of October is some £480,000. This figure excludes the cost of income support and training agency administrative costs. The estimated expenditure over the next six months is likely to be in the region of £2 million. A budget of around £36,000 has been allocated for marketing employment training in the Bradford area until the end of this financial year. In addition, the area will continue to benefit from national advertising campaigns and from nationally produced publicity materials.

§ Mr. Madden
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons, to date, living in the Bradford travel-to-work area, have accepted places on ET; how many ET places in Bradford are now vacant; and if he will list under broad headings the type of training available in vacant ET places.

§ Mr. Lee
Information based on the residence of trainees is not available. However, in the Bradford travel-to-work area at 28 October 1988, some 880 people had completed action plans with training agents and some 770 people were in training with training managers. A further 750 training places are available to trainees covering a wide range of occupations and including opportunities in construction, retailing, hotels and catering and office skills.