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University for Industry
17. Ms Rosie Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to establish a university for industry. [8613]
Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend hopes to announce our plans for developing the university for industry very shortly.
Ms Winterton: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Does he agree that the key to improving skills and training is to bring together business, industry, education institutions and training providers with Government Departments to identify strategic priorities? What advice can he give businesses in my constituency which wish to become involved with the university for industry?
Dr. Howells: We are consulting widely on the form and shape that the university for industry will take. Survey after survey has shown that one of the great weaknesses of British industry is the quality of its management. If the management of small and medium enterprises can begin to access the best of our larger and more successful firms and the better of our smaller firms, that will benefit everyone, especially those in the manufacturing sector that my hon. Friend mentioned.
Sixth Forms
19. Mr. Bennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the number of new sixth forms which will open this autumn. [8615]
Dr. Howells: We consider every sixth form application on its merits and will continue to do so.
Mr. Bennett: Does my hon. Friend accept that establishing new sixth forms is not the best use of resources? Is he aware of the problems in Tameside, where the previous Government approved a new sixth form for Audenshaw high school in spite of the excellent provision in Tameside college, Ashton sixth form centre and Hyde sixth form centre? It would have been better to
use the resources in all the local authority schools in Tameside instead of establishing a new, unnecessary sixth form at Audenshaw high school.
Dr. Howells: I was sorry that I had not seen the application before it was agreed by the previous Administration, but we pay special care and attention to every application that is made to the Department for an additional sixth form in any school anywhere in England. We shall continue to do so, because we are well aware that resources are precious and that unnecessary duplication should not happen. We shall be careful when deciding which schools are allowed to have sixth forms in future.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: Before considering new sixth forms, will the Minister look carefully at the funding formula as it affects existing sixth form colleges? My constituency contains two excellent sixth form colleges, but the funding formula is in danger of adversely affecting them. Will the Minister move towards greater convergence in the funding formula for sixth formers, whether in school or in sixth form colleges?
Dr. Howells: The right hon. Lady is right, and we must look carefully at that formula. The Further Education Funding Council deals with sixth form colleges, which are separate from sixth forms in schools, and we must examine the relationship between them carefully. At every opportunity, we seek excellence and best practice. Whether those factors are provided in a sixth form in a school or in a sixth form college, our decision will be based on that information and our desire to raise standards.
Youth Training
20. Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on his proposals to increase training and employment opportunities for young people. [8616]
Mr. Andrew Smith: Through the new deal and Target 2000 we shall increase, and put into the mainstream, opportunities for young people to prepare and equip themselves for the world of work, so that they are empowered to play a full and productive part in society.
Mr. Mackinlay: Does the Minister accept that thousands of young people are languished on the dole queue with no opportunities for training or developing skills during the years of Conservative government, and who are looking to the new Government to give them early, fairly immediate opportunities to improve their quality of life and increase their talents and skills, both for their own sake and for that of their families and of this country? What can he suggest to the House to give those people some immediate hope, some aspirations for the coming 12 months?
Mr. Smith: The new deal that we have proposed offers the quality options of work, primarily with private sector employers, or on the environmental task force or in the
voluntary sector and, for those who lack basic skills, the opportunity of full-time education and training for up to 12 months. That is in addition to the measures set out by the Chancellor for sustainable growth in the economy, to enable us to repair the social damage and the wasted lives to which my hon. Friend rightly referred.Employment Proposals
21. Mrs. Brinton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the introduction of his proposals for providing employment for young and long-term unemployed people. [8617]
Mr. Andrew Smith: The new deal for 18 to 24-year-olds will begin in a number of "pathfinder areas" in Britain in January next year, and will be introduced nationally next April. The help for people aged 25 or over who have been unemployed for at least two years will start in June 1998.
Mrs. Brinton: I thank my right hon. Friend for his reply. Is he aware that yesterday, in my constituency of Peterborough, I presented the new deal to the chamber of commerce, where it was most warmly welcomed? Is he also aware that Shackleton Associates, also in my constituency, is already operating a highly successful pilot scheme? Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Labour party, not the Conservative party, is now the party of business and enterprise?
Mr. Smith: Yes, indeed. My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the positive reception that our new deal proposals are receiving from the business community, just as they are from the people of this country as a whole. If this country is to become, as it should, a one-nation Britain, that requires a whole-nation effort. [Laughter.] Conservative Members who are laughing should join that effort and become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem, which is what their party's Administration was.
Mrs. May: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the report by the Policy Studies Institute that was mentioned in the press some days ago? It said that the previous Government's proposals for getting unemployed people into work had been extremely successful, especially what I think was called the workfare proposal, whereby people went into work for a number of weeks while remaining on benefit? At the end of the period, that had achieved a far higher percentage of unemployed people getting permanent jobs than had many other such schemes.
The report also said that the Government's new deal welfare-to-work proposals were likely to be expensive and unnecessary, and would not be as successful as those of the previous Government. What percentage of unemployed people does the Minister expect to achieve permanent jobs at the end of their time on a welfare-to-work scheme?
Mr. Smith:
I think that the hon. Lady has misnamed the study referred to in the report. If I recall correctly, the report praised the work trial initiative, which enabled long-term unemployed people to have trial placements with employers while still in receipt of benefit, so that
Jobseeker's Allowance
22. Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the imposition of a requirement to be available for work on Sundays in order to qualify for jobseeker's allowance. [8618]
Mr. Alan Howarth: People receiving jobseeker's allowance do not have to be available for work on a Sunday, providing that they can agree a pattern of availability for work with their Employment Service adviser which means they are available for the number of hours required, usually for 40 hours a week, and gives them reasonable prospects of securing employment. If, for example, a clergyman were to propose that his pattern of work should be such that he would not need to be available for work on a Sunday, we should look askance at that.
Mr. Breed: Will the Minister make his view crystal clear to all officers dealing with jobseeker's allowance, because there is a growing feeling that people who have to turn down jobs on moral grounds because they potentially involve work on Sundays are being denied their jobseeker's allowance?
Mr. Howarth: It is made clear in the jobseeker's regulations that genuinely held religious or conscientious reasons for declining an offer will be accepted as a good cause. However, I take the hon. Gentleman's point. It is important that all Employment Service staff react with sensitivity to the genuine conscientious concerns of unemployed people.
Rev. Martin Smyth: I can assure the Minister that to lead the people of God in worship on a Sunday is not work--work is the rest of the week. We have had assurances that people would not be penalised if they were concerned about Sunday work. Can I plead that there be no restrictions at any level? If there are restrictions, we shall be moving towards not only the millennium but the mark of the beast.
Mr. Howarth: It certainly would not be work to listen to either a speech or a sermon from the hon. Gentleman. I can give him the assurance that he seeks.
Mr. Brady: On a point of order, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker: No. I am sorry, but points of order are always taken after statements.
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