§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many Centres of Vocational Excellence have been established and in what specialisms; and how many have been established by(a) colleges, (b) private training providers and (c) employers. [90927]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisExcellent progress has been made in establishing Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs). 157 CoVEs have been created so far and in the Spending Review we announced additional funding to establish a total of 400 CoVEs by 2006.
These CoVEs cover a range of specialisms and have a geographical spread to ensure local, regional and national skills needs are addressed. The following table sets out the range of specialisms (by number and percentage of current network):
Specialism Number of CoVEs Percentage of current CoVE network Engineering 36 23 Construction 23 15 Hospitality/Tourism 22 14 Creative Industries 20 13 Health/Care 17 11 ICT 16 10 Land Based 7 4 Business/Management 5 3 Retail/Distributive 4 3 Sport/Leisure 3 2 Food Manufacture 2 1 Hair/Beauty 2 1 Of the 157 CoVEs established to date 138 are in Further Education colleges. 19 are in work based learning providers. Of these 8 are in private training providers, 8 in group training associations and three in large companies.
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