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19 Nov 2007 : Column 656W—continued

Places for vocational subjects, except for 2004/05, are included within the allocation for the related academic subject. Recruitment figures show vocational subjects separately from 2003/04 on. Updated tables, incorporating final 2006/07 and provisional 2007/08 recruitment data are scheduled to be published in January 2008.

The Training and Development Agency (TDA) announcement of 12 November 2007 included provisional recruitment figures for academic year 2007/08 for mainstream secondary overall and Science by subject. 16,219 were on mainstream secondary courses, including 968 Biology, 739 Chemistry and 477 Physics specialists.

Young People: Education

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he expects to publish the action plan on providing young people with jobs, education or training. [164758]

Beverley Hughes: The Department published its strategy for reducing the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) on 5 November 2007. It is planned to follow this with a toolkit in January 2008 to help local authorities and their delivery partners develop and deliver their local plans for reducing NEET.

Young People: Employment

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the evidential basis was for his statement that around one per cent. of 16 to 18 year-olds are long-term not in education, employment and training. [165345]

Jim Knight: The estimate that around one per cent of 16 to 18 year-olds are long-term not in education, employment or training comes from the Youth Cohort Study. This study first contacts young people in the spring after they have finished compulsory education and collects information on their activities. Follow up studies are conducted at annual intervals, typically for a further three years.

The estimate of one per cent. comes from the proportion of young people who report being not in education, employment or training at each of the first three surveys, at academic age 16, 17 and 18. Because the Youth Cohort Study only measures activity at snapshots in time, it is possible that some of the one per cent. may be involved in some education, employment or training in the times in between surveys. The estimate of one per cent. is consistent for the cohort that took GCSEs in 2001 and the cohort that took GCSEs in 2003.

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