§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what financial support his Department offers to full-time students on sandwich courses who are unable to find paid placements; [23961]
(2) what proposals the Government have to assist students spending a year in an industrial placement. [23965]
§ Dr. HowellsStudents who hold mandatory awards for a sandwich course are not normally eligible for maintenance support during their placements. They can expect to be paid for their productive work by the employer with which they are placed. Where students have unpaid placements in many parts of the public service they exceptionally continue to be eligible for means-tested maintenance support as part of their award in substitution for payment by the employer. Students in either category who are unable to find placements are not eligible for maintenance support unless their institution is able to make suitable alternative provision for them.
Students on sandwich courses can apply for the appropriate rate of loan in any year in which there is a placement where the student and the course are eligible for loans. Provided that they are attending their course, whether at the institution or on a placement, when an application is made for a loan it can be paid.