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The New Training Initiative—an Evaluation∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

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Extract

The background to the White Paper proposals for changes in the organisation of skilled training, published in December 1981, is to be found six months earlier in a detailed Review by the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) of the workings of the Employment and Training Act of 1973. That Review concluded that ‘current training arrangements have made little advance in securing fundamental reforms of training’ (paragraph 4.34), and that ‘in general, in the traditional crafts, it is still the passage of time rather than objectively assessed performance standards, which decides whether a trainee is accepted as skilled’ (paragraph 4.16).

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 99 , February 1982 , pp. 68 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

This Note has been prepared by Ian Jones of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, as part of the research programme of the Designated Research Centre in Comparative Industrial Structure and Efficiency sponsored by the SSRC at the NIESR. He is grateful to colleagues at the National Institute, especially Sig Prais, Anne Daly, Heinz Hollenstein and Chris Trinder for advice and assistance. The note remains the full responsibility of the author.

References

(1) A new training initiative: a programme for action, Cmnd 8455, December 1981.

(2) Outlook on training; review of the employment and training act 1973, MSC, July 1980.

(3) See Pigou, A. C., The economics of welfare, 4th edition, Macmillan, 1932.

(4) G. S. Becker, Human capital, (first edition 1964, second edition 1975) NBER; see also K. Hartley, Training and retraining in industry, in Fiscal policy and labour supply (Report of a Conference), Institute of Fiscal Studies, 1977.

(1) Department of Employment, Employment Gazette, January 1981. The evidence formed the basis of a written Parliamentary answer by the Under Secretary at the Depart ment of Employment, Mr Peter Morrison, on 13 July 1981.

(2) IDS, Apprentices' pay, Study 198, July 1979; Young workers' pay, Study 294, November 1981.

(3) Information from Department of Employment, New earnings survey, 1980 Part D, Analyses by Occupation and Department of Employment, Time rates of wages and hours of work, April 1980, both London, HMSO, 1980.

(4) OECD, Youth without work, a report by Shirley Williams and other experts, OECD, Paris, 1981.

(5) It is also pointed out in Youth without work (op. cit., p.112) that in addition to the allowances paid by employers, young people in need can receive assistance under the Employ ment Protection Act. The rates set depend on the age of the trainee, whether he or she is living at home or elsewhere, and on the training institution. The aim is to encourage young people to prefer training to unskilled work.

(6) Unpublished tabulations kindly provided by Dr H. Hollenstein of the Economic Research Centre, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

(1) Prais, S. J., Vocational qualifications of the labour force in Britain and Germany, National Institute Economic Review, No. 98, November 1981.

(2) See, for example, M. P. Fogarty and E. Reid, Differentials for managers and skilled manual workers in the UK, PSI, 1980.

(3) For some evidence of a similar phenomenon in the USA, see P. Ryan, The costs of job training for a transferable skill, British Journal of Industrial Relations, November 1980, 18,3; 334-351.

(4) See, in particular, Becker, G. S., op. cit. (second edition), pp 94-135.

(5) An unpublished tabulation from the 1974 New Earnings Survey shows apprentice and other trainee earnings in manu facturing industry as 70 per cent of the earnings of non- apprentice etc. workers aged less than 21. This figure is almost certainly a downward-biased estimate of the true relationship between apprentice and non-apprentice earnings. Unpublished data provided by Dr H. Hollenstein indicate that apprentice wages in Switzerland were only about 30 per cent of the earnings of non-apprentice juvenile workers (i.e. workers aged 19 or less).

(1) In the words of the White Paper, the YTS ‘will aim to equip unemployed young people to adapt successfully to the demands of employment, to have a fuller appreciation of the world of industry, business and technology in which they will be working; and to develop basic and recognised skills which employers will require in future’.

(2) MSC, An open tech programme, May 1981.

(3) No information is provided in the White Paper on the price base for any of the expenditure figures quoted: it is therefore impossible to assess to what extent the ‘increases’ quoted above represent real increases.

(4) The MSC estimate that the net cost of Exchequer of the current YOP scheme is about 60 per cent of its gross cost. We would expect the net cost of the YTS to represent a somewhat higher proportion of gross outlays because of its relatively higher ‘training’ input.

(5) CPRS, Education, training and industrial performance, HMSO, 1980.

(6) As the CPRS Report explains (op. cit.) ‘up to the 1944 Education Act, the Government had powers to prescribe the curriculum by regulations. However the Secretary of State for Education and Science has said he does not intend to return to this position’.

(1) Paragraph 20 of AA states that, ‘Few addressed these issues in responding to the Consultative Document. Perhaps this was because there is already a large number of experienced standard-setting bodies. But it is quite clear that while the range of educational standards has been developed for a broad spectrum of jobs, far less has been done to develop standards of practical competence and associated terminal tests. In too many occupations it is the form of the training and the level of terminal achievement which determines access to jobs. Also standards and syllabuses are in constant need of review because of technological and market changes' (our italics).

(2) Review of Craft Apprenticeship in Engineering, known as the Information Paper 49 (IP 49) proposals, Engineering Industry Training Board, 3.78.

(3) A figure of 463,000 apprenticeship places in 1974 is given in Outlook on Training, op. cit.

(4) The Young Workers Scheme (YWS) started on 4 January 1982. The main provision is that employers can claim £15 a week for 12 months in respect of each employee under 18 whose gross earnings are below £40 a week.

(5) Paragraph 58 of the White Paper states that, ‘For the immediate future the Government sees an increase of public expenditure on this scale as the only way of plugging the gap in the training provision required…’

(1) See, for example, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), Relationships between education and employment and their impact on education and labour market policies (1981).