New Training Initiative: What's in it for the Employer

This contribution, to put it simply, is what the Department of Employment wishes to say to employers about the New Training Initiative. So far the DoE has not made much effort to communicate directly with employers but on this occasion it has sought the co‐operation of publishers to get the message across. This occasion can, therefore be seen as both unique and a new departure. It inevitably covers some of the same ground as the previous article on the MSC draft proposals but we have published it nevertheless. What is interesting and relevant is that the DoE should be appealing to employers direct and independently of the MSC. In recent years Ministers of Labour have left the initiative to the MSC and this occasion marks a turning point of the Minister taking responsibility back into his own hands. If this is part of the Tebbit philosophy it is a wise move. Without any doubt, and one of the reasons for us publishing it, the main interest is the fact that it commits the Government in public to the reform of apprenticeship — a thing no other Government has dared do — and that it sets a dead‐line upon it. In succeeding issues of this journal we shall be featuring changes in apprenticeship and this article will serve as a starting point. The passages picked out in bold type are our own choices of emphasis and do not appear in the original document.