§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on progress made with the pilot programme established in 1990 by the Training Agency to develop centres of excellence for environmental training; what resources have been committed to this programme; and what plans he has to extend the national environmental training programme.
Mr. JacksonThe centres of excellence were piloted between January 1990 and March 1991 at a cost of £435,000. A review at the end of 1990 concluded that they had a useful potential role working with local training and enterprise councils to promote and develop environmental training and services.
437WResponsibility for the centres has now passed to TECs, although money is this year available to TECs to test new approaches to environmental training. The Welsh Centre of Excellence, along with a number of other projects, has received funding in this way.