Tebbit's training trauma

The Employment Secretary's new training proposals are accepted in education only because, in a desperate situation, anything is regarded as better than nothing. The New Training Initiative (NTI) is too little in terms of resources; too late in the light of the deplorable prospects facing young people; too ad hoc and isolated from existing provision, especially further education, to create genuine new opportunities. It does not even aim at immediate provision for all unemployed under‐18s and, ignoring the lessons of the 1964 Industrial Training Act, it places on industry the main responsibility for training.