RTITB seeks boost for apprentice training
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• The Road Transport Industry Training Board has been concerned about the evidence accumulating in recent months that the recruitment of apprentices into the industry this year will fall far short of the number required to meet the industry's future needs for skilled craftsmen. A survey carried out by the Board's staff has revealed that apprentice recruitment is unlikely-to exceed 7500 this summer against an estimated need of,10,000. This figure has been established by the Board's manpower planning division and is detailed in a number of studies, the most recent of which is "Manpower in the Seventies".
This shortfall, says the RTITB, has to be seen in the light of an under-recruitment of 1000 apprentices in 1971 and in the knowledge that next year, 1973, the increase in the school-leaving age will create a situation in which there will be very few
young boys available to enter the industry.
The Board has therefore decided to ask the Department of Employment to seek approval for Government financial assistance, for a further year, in offering training awards to school-leavers which will permit them to undertake full-time studies with a view to their entering into employment in road transport. These awards will cover the cost of fees of a boy during a 24 weeks' full-time course at a technical college or other training centre, interspersed, if necessary, by periods of on-the-job training in an employer's establishment. In addition, the award will provide the boy with an allowance of £5.50 per week during training to meet his living costs. Half the cost of the scheme would be met by the Government and the other half by the RTITB.