Apprenticeships (Hansard, 10 January 1995)

Mr. Robert Ainsworth
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what guidance he has given to training and enterprise councils concerning assurances they can give to employers about funding for the modern apprentice scheme beyond the first year.

§ Mr. Paice
The operating agreement between the Department and the training and enterprise councils provides assurances for the continuity of funding. This ensures that sufficient funds will be made available to TECs so that young people on modern apprenticeships can complete their training.

Mr. Robert Ainsworth
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received concerning the need to give long-term commitments to employers involved in the modern apprentice scheme.

§ Mr. Paice
I am not aware of having received any particular representations concerning the need to give long-term commitments to employers involved in modern apprenticeships. Sufficient funds will be made available to training and enterprise councils to ensure that young people can complete their training under modern apprenticeship with employers—normally some three years.

Mr. Robert Ainsworth
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what checks his Department is planning on attendance records for those involved in the modern apprentice scheme and working with an employer.

§ Mr. Paice
In training and enterprise council areas where there is a pilot scheme for starts and outcomes funding, no attendance records will be made. Where training weeks continue to be used, checks will be made to substantiate training weeks claimed from the Department and that these records are in accordance with the Department's requirements. For employed status trainees the records required are either:

(a) employers' own payroll or attendance records, providing these record unauthorised absence and employers are prepared for them to be used to verify the attendance of modern apprentices; or

(b) the attendance records specified by the Department.
A sample of records will be checked, primarily by the TEC with whom the provider of the modern apprenticeship has a contract, in accordance with the guidance issued by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment. The checks will he the same as for other programmes where the Department pays for training weeks.