Welcome support for GTAs
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• Government support for the group training associations was promised by Mr Robin Chichester-Clark, Minister of State for Employment, while speaking to the Merseyside Training Council on Wednesday last week. He said that the Government was willing to undertake to help any training board which attaches high priority to group training schemes.
"They will receive sufficient support from Exchequer funds to ensure that, with what is available from levy income, direct support to existing schemes is maintained and the development of new schemes is encouraged during 1974/75," he said.
Though he could not give explicit guarantees for later years because the matter would be one for the Manpower Services Commission when it is set up, he said that the Government would accept that long-term provision for the training groups could be based on a similar policy.
The statement of intention was given a cautious welcome by the Road Transport Industry Training Board. Mr Eric Tindall, its director-general, told CM this week that
while the Government's promise to provide financial support for the training groups was encouraging, the revenue from the proposed levy would be much reduced thus curtailing the amount which the Board could contribute. As the whole amount set aside for training was no more than £25m to £40m, the contribution from Governmentsources could he inadequate.