HC Deb 17 January 1989 vol 145 cc174-5W
31. Mr. Patrick Thompson

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give details of the number of vacancies on the YTS in the Norwich area.

Mr. Cope

At 16 December 1988, of 2,920 agreed YTS places in the Norwich local authority district 787 were unfilled.

35. Mr. Grocott

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether the Government are in a position to carry out their commitment of a guaranteed YTS place; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Cope

Yes. There are more than sufficient unfilled YTS places available in all areas of the country to fulfil the guarantee of the offer of a suitable YTS place to all who apply.

77. Mr. Canavan

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the number of unemployed 16 and 17-year-olds who have not been offered a YTS place.

Mr. Cope

This information is not available. Once young people leave full-time education they art not required to tell the local authority career service what they are doing. There are a number of options open to 16 and 17-year-olds. Those who chose other options will not, of course, be offered a YTS place. However there are more than sufficient YTS places available in all areas of the country for all who apply.

79. Mr. Siliars

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the effects on the 16 to 17-year-old group of the operation of the YTS placement scheme.

Mr. Cope

YTS has been a resounding success for young people and employers alike, providing good quality structured vocational training in the foundation skills which young people need at the start of their working lives.

87. Mr. Andrew MacKay

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a further statement on the progress of two-year YTS.

Mr. Cope

The scheme continues to play a major role in meeting the training needs of young people and employers. Over 2 million young people have been in YTS since its inception and around three quarters of trainees currently find employment or go into further education or training. We shall continue the drive for positive outcomes through YTS, in particular nationally recognised vocational qualifications for all trainees and employment on completion of their training.

90. Mr. Couchman

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many young people are currently training on two-year YTS; and if he will make a statement.

108. Mr. Paice

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many young people are currently on YTS training schemes; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Cope

At the end of December 1988 there were 419,900 young people in training on YTS.

As the Government made clear in the recent White Paper "Employment for the 1990s", YTS has been a resounding success. The task now is to increase still further the contribution which YTS can make to meeting the needs of the changing labour market.

111. Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he has any plans to improve the safety of YTS training; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Cope

Health and safety remain of paramount importance in YTS. There is a contractual requirement on all managing agents to secure the health, safety and welfare of trainees both in work placements and in off-the-job training. In addition, a positive commitment to health and safety is one of the criteria which have to be fulfilled by managing agents as a condition of approved training organisation status.

We constantly try to improve health and safety and we have in hand improved training materials for both young people and trainers.