Stephen Williams Speaks In Education, Training & Skills Debate (Stephen Williams MP)

Stephen Williams Speaks In Education, Training & Skills Debate

January 15, 2010 3:43 PM

Stephen Williams MP speaking in Parliament on the 2009 Budget

Stephen Williams speaks about Liberal Democrat views on education, training and skills

On Wednesday 13th January Stephen Williams spoke out on Liberal Democrat views during the Opposition Day debate on education, training & skills.

He discussed the major issues related to this topic, particularly with regard to youth unemployment and graduates. In his speech, Mr Williams said that:

"We need emergency measures to help the young unemployed, whatever their skill set might be... The Liberal Democrats have suggested that there should be a 90-day promise, and that no young person should be unemployed for more than 90 days. We would bridge the gap by offering paid, funded internships. Those unemployed people are being funded anyway by the DWP through their jobseeker's allowance, and it would be much better to pay £55 a week so that they could take up an internship in a company.

"In the longer term, we also believe that there should be more funding for apprenticeship places... We believe that the funding should be found from the Train to Gain budget, especially for the off-the-job training costs of those who are taking up apprenticeships in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Also in the longer term, there should be a fairer way of funding higher education than simply loading more debt on to students."

Shortly after making this speech Mr Williams met with Lord Browne, who will be chairing the higher education fees review, in order to discuss the Liberal Democrats' views regarding the review of higher education with him.

To view the video of Stephen speaking in this debate please click on the following link:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2010-01-13b.704.1

Or to view the text of this debate in full, please click on the following link:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100113/debtext/100113-0009.htm