§ Ms. ShortTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, at the most recently available date, and for the same months in 1986,1987 and 1988 how many people of YTS eligible age, registered with jobcentres or the careers service were awaiting an offer of a YTS place; and how many unfilled places on the scheme were available at those dates, broken down for each training agency region and for Great Britain as a whole.
§ Mr. CopeThe Government guarantee the offer of a suitable YTS place to all under-18-year-olds who want one.
As at 31 May 1989, there were some 141,144 unfilled vacancies on YTS in Great Britain. The numbers for each of the Training Agency regions are as follows:
433W
Numbers Scotland 13,770 Northern 8,910 North West 17,822
Numbers Yorkshire and Humberside 16,518 West Midlands 24,343 Wales 4,454 East Midlands 16,796 South West 11,500 South East 18,267 London 8,764 These figures far exceed the demand for places. Young people have a good choice of training opportunities. It is not possible to compare the current situation with that in previous years when the YTS guarantee was of the offer of a suitable place by Christmas to any of that year's school leavers who were unemployed.