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29 Mar 2006 : Column 1085W—continued
Train to Gain Programme
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many extra places the Train to Gain programme is forecast to create over the next three years in (a) West Yorkshire, (b) Wakefield District and (c) Normanton constituency. [54802]
Phil Hope:
Train to Gain, which will be available in all Learning and Skills regions from August 2006, is intended to be a service that responds to the skills needs of employers.
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Planning assumptions about the potential learner volumes for first Level 2 and Skills for Life that might be supported within each LSC region are a matter for the LSC. Mark Haysom, the chief executive has written to the hon. Member and a copy of his letter has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 15 March 2006:
Train to Gain is a new service to help businesses get the training they need to succeed. The service will offer advice on business needs, match training needs with high quality training providers and ensure that training is delivered flexibly.
It will enable many more adults to achieve a first full level 2 qualification and to improve their basic literacy, numeracy and language skills. The service will be driven by the needs of employers and so the principal targets relate to employers engaged (particularly small businesses which don't invest in skills training).
We are intending to work with around 33,000 employers in 2006–07, at least half of whom will be 'hard to reach'.
2. The proportion of the workforce without a first full level 2 qualification (from the Labour Force Survey)
Yorkshire and the Humber will be allocated over £15 million in new funding for Train to Gain in 2006–07.
Our planning assumption is that this will deliver around 22,000 employees on learning programmes. On a proportional basis within the region this should lead to around 8,000 learners in West Yorkshire.
University E-courses
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost has been of online university e-courses; and how many students have graduated through such courses. [59806]
Bill Rammell: It is not possible to identify these specific costs from universities' expenditure returns. We are providing record levels of funding which rise to £9.5 billion a year by 2007/08 to enable higher education providers to offer more flexible, innovative ways of delivering courses, including on-line courses. We are already producing over 300,000 graduates a year and, in 2004/05 over 180,000 students (mainly at the Open University) were already accessing on-line courses.
Vending Machines
Mr. Simon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the revenue to secondary schools in England from vending machines in 2004–05. [59951]
Jacqui Smith:
The School Food Trust has provided advice to Ministers on standards that should apply to food and drink provided at times other than lunch. This
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includes what is sold from vending machines in schools. We are now seeking views on that advice from a limited number of key stakeholders in education, health and the food industry.
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We will publish the full regulatory impact assessment alongside the final standards. This will consider any financial impact that proposals will have on the revenue to schools from vending sales.