Investing in Young People (Hansard, 11 January 1999)

§ Mr. Hain

Investing in Young People is a term used by the Department for Education and Employment to describe a range of education and training initiatives in England, which are designed to raise the achievements of young people to NVQ level 2 or equivalent. This term is not used within Wales, although most of the initiatives are contained within our policies which are set out in "Building Better Schools Together, Learning is for Everyone" and "Pathway to Prosperity: A New Economic Agenda for Wales".

High-quality education and training which is accessible to all is essential to building a prosperous Welsh economy. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales announced on 14 December 1998 Official Report, column 3, that he was increasing total expenditure on education and training in Wales by £844 million over the next 3 years. This increase will provide a sound basis for the National Assembly for Wales when it assumes responsibility for education and training in Wales.

Expenditure on Skill-Seekers and Skill-Build, our replacement programmes for Youth Training, is being increased by £9 million in 1999–2000, and by £12 million and £13.5 million respectively in 2000–01 and 2001–02. This will allow TECs to: maintain the current level of places for Modem Apprenticeships, National Traineeships and Skill-Build, a programme targeted at those young people who are not able to follow training to level 2; increase the basic level of training allowance to £40 per week; improve the quality of provision through the payment of higher unit prices to training providers.

In order to help 14 and 15 year old young people who have been, or are at risk of being, excluded from education, and 16 to 17 year olds who have dropped out of education, training and employment, we are making available a further £0.4 million in 1999–2000, and £0.9 million in 2000–01 and 2001–02 to strengthen the Youth Access Initiative.

To help ensure that young people leaving school embark upon the most appropriate training or education pathway, we have asked the Welsh TECs to collaborate with the careers companies to design and operation, on a pilot basis, a Youth Gateway. The Youth Gateway comprises an extended assessment, work sampling initiative which will enable young people to make better-informed decisions about their future. £3.75 million is being made available over three years for this purpose.

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We will also be introducing in September 1999 the new statutory Right to Time Off to Study or Train programme. Targeting 16 and 17 year olds who are already in jobs but have not achieved a level 2 qualification, this programme will allow them reasonable paid time off work, to pursue a course of study or training leading to the achievement of a level 2 qualification.

Our policies for further education (FE) are detailed in our lifelong learning Green Paper—"Learning is for Everyone" (LIFE).

LIFE sets out a challenging vision of priorities for the future and in order to meet this challenge I was delighted to announce last month very significant increases in funding for further education. In 1999–2000, total expenditure on FE in Wales will for the first time exceed £200 million with more than £100 million of additional funding being ploughed into the sector over the next three years. This will support additional student enrolments of 28,000 by academic year 2001–2002, on top of the current 202,000 enrolments. Also, FE Access Funds will increase from £0.5 million per annum to a total of £13 million over the next three years, to support widening access and improved retention of students.

These new and enhanced programmes demonstrate the commitment of the Government to investing in the young people of Wales.