David Willetts

Responding to John Denham’s reannouncement of a reannouncement today on pre-employment training courses, Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary David Willetts said:

“Today’s statement is a reannouncement of a reannouncement. There is no new money.

“The funding is made up of £100 million that had already been assigned to raising employment even before it was last announced back in October. And the other £58 million is being taken from another training programme that has been too inflexible to meet employers’ needs.

“Ministers say they’re going to use Further Education colleges to deliver more training. But they are tied up in red tape and regulated by a minimum of 17 quangos. The best way to get them helping unemployed people is to set them free to help people locally.”

Note to Editors

Today’s press release from DIUS says the £158m funding comes from ‘both Government training funds and the European Social Fund’. Today’s release from DWP makes it clear that half (£79m) of this sum comes from the European Social Fund. Therefore the other half (£79m) comes from existing DIUS training budgets, specifically Train to Gain - this includes the £58 million that the Government have added to the £100m announced on 15 October.

ENDS