Careers:: TRAINING

Abstract

A 23‐year‐old, ex‐grammar schoolboy — five ‘O’ levels — who left school at 16 and worked as a bought ledger clerk has just got a job as a junior computer programmer; starting salary £3,100. There are others like him … but what is different about young Ronald Smith of Gillingham, Kent, is that he is the 1000th trainee supported by the Manpower Services Commission's Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS), trained by the Control Data Institute, and found a place in the computer industry. The TOPS scheme, run by the Commission's Training Service Agency, is for people who want to train or retrain to better their job prospects; 90,000 people were trained last year. This is an excellent demonstration of how effective the TOPS programme can be in expanding available manpower in areas where skills are in short supply, and in achieving job mobility through training.

Citation

(1977), "Careers:: TRAINING", Education + Training, Vol. 19 No. 10, pp. 311-313. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb016531