§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the skills gap in Wales; and what new steps he is planning to improve the numbers of qualified technicians in Wales and the supply of suitable applicants for apprenticeships on offer leading to technician-level qualifications. [17744]
§ Mr. RedwoodThe 1994 Welsh employers survey, conducted by the independent researchers IFF, covered nearly 3,000 employers in Wales. It found that about 5 per cent. of manufacturing establishments in Wales had868W vacancies that were hard to fill because of a lack of skilled or qualified applicants. Improving the supply of qualified technicians has long been one of my priorities. In December 1993 I announced that support for new modern apprenticeships in Wales would concentrate in 1994–95 on manufacturing engineering, training people to NVQ levels 3 and 4. Nearly 500 people have started modern apprenticeships in manufacturing engineering in Wales in 1994–95. To support this, during 1994–95 I invested £5 million to update colleges' engineering facilities. This is in addition to the normal capital funding available to colleges through the Further Education Funding Council for Wales.
A concerted action plan to strengthen the supply of technicians in manufacturing industry is set out on pages 12 and 13 of "People and Prosperity—an Agenda for Action in Wales", which I published on 20 March. I wrote to all the TECs on 8 March to tell them to take action ahead of any shortage of engineer, electronics specialists and construction trades appearing.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has had from National Panasonic concerning the adequacy of the supply of suitable applicants for apprenticeship to intermediate levels of skills between the craft and graduate engineer level. [17694]
§ Mr. RedwoodA copy of the press release that Panasonic issued on 16 March was obtained by the Welsh Office, and a Welsh Office official spoke to the company. No direct representations from the company have been received, but at my request South Glamorgan training and enterprise council is meeting the company to discuss the issue and to try to solve the problem.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received from business leaders in Wales concerning the adequate supply of qualified(a) craftsmen and women, (b) technicians and (c) graduate engineers; and what consultations he has had with the educational establishments in Wales and with the Wales engineering centre concerning the supply and demand for engineering technicians in electronics and other branches of engineering. [17693]
§ Mr. RedwoodIn the course of my visits to companies in Wales, business leaders have commented on these issues but no formal representations have been made recently to my Department. The Welsh Office issued a consultation paper on engineering skills in May 1993. Fifty-four responses were received. In the light of this, I announced in December 1993 a package of measures to improve the supply of engineering skills, linked to modern apprenticeships. I attach high priority to increasing the number of trained engineers and electronics specialists and have instructed the training and enterprise councils to do this.