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Apprenticeship Ordinance. So far 28 trades have been recommended by the Training Council for designation under the Ordinance. 23 of these trades, covering some 5, 600 trainees, have already been designated and the remaining five trades, covering some 7,300 trainees, will be designated with effect from February 1978. The technical institutes have so far experienced difficulty in filling places on some of their part- time day courses, mainly because such courses are linked to employment, and employers, while recognising the long-term benefits of such courses, are reluctant to bear the cost of releasing their young employees for further education and training. However, the Commissioner for Labour is rapidly building up his staff of Inspectors of Apprentices to ensure that, where appropriate, young persons employed in the designated trades are brought under a contract of apprenticeship and released to courses at a technical institute. The Government will consider also extending the upper age-limit of young persons who are subject to the provisions of the Apprenticeship Ordinance, within the scope already provided for by the Ordinance. These measures are expected to a significant impact on the number of enrolments on part-time craft courses in technical institutes.
7.4
have
In Chapter 4 it was noted that there would be a substantial increase in the number of subsidised full-time places in schools and technical institutes available to the Form III leaver in 1981 compared with the number available at the present time. This increase in full-time places, together with the declining population of 15 year olds, will have a significant effect on the labour market. It is important, therefore, that employers should make their apprenticeship schemes, linked with attendance on part-time courses at technical institutes, an attractive alternative to continued full-time education for a substantial proportion of the able students who will be completing Form III at that time. This aim may involve improving the social standing and promotion prospects of the skilled worker.
7.5
One means of encouraging students to take courses of post-secondary technical education is to introduce them to the work of technical institutes while still at school. This can be done through link courses, whereby secondary school students attend a technical institute for half or one day a week, thus familiarising themselves with the range of courses that a technical institute can provide. This arrangement may help students in making their vocational choices. Such courses have been mounted in the UK and elsewhere with
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