§ 20. Barbara FollettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the new centres of vocational excellence. [56365]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisOn 29 April we announced new money to fund an extra 100 centres of vocational excellence. Centres of vocational excellence will develop new, and enhance existing, excellent vocational provision which is focused on meeting the skills needs of employers, nationally, regionally and locally.
456WAn additional £57 million is being invested into extending the centres of vocational excellence programme beyond our existing commitment to create centres of vocational excellence in half of all general further education colleges by 2004. The money, £40 million of which is new resource from the Capital Modernisation Fund announced in the Budget, will fund an extra 50 centres in colleges and an additional 50 centres of vocational excellence based in organisations beyond the further education sector, such as private or voluntary training providers.
For the first time, we are inviting training providers outside the further education sector to become involved in the programme. These new centres will help us harness the valuable experience that many in the private and voluntary training sectors possess and is a direct response to the positive feedback we received for this proposal in our consultation.
We have made excellent progress to date. The first 16 centres are up and running and beginning to deliver excellent results across a range of industries. A further 70 have just been established and the first non-college centres of vocational excellence come on stream later this month. By March 2004 there will be 250 centres of vocational excellence making a vital contribution to increasing the nation's vocational skills and productivity.