Employment and Training Act 1973

8 Provision of services by education authorities

(1) Subject to subsections (3) to (5) of this section, it shall be the duty of each local education authority—

(a) to make arrangements for the purpose of assisting persons who are attending, either full-time or part-time, educational institutions in Great Britain other than universities—

(i) to determine what employments will, having regard to their capabilities, be suitable for them and available to them when they leave the institutions, and

(ii) to determine what training will then be required by them and available to them in order to fit them for those employments ;

(b) to make arrangements for the purpose of assisting per sons leaving institutions mentioned in the preceding paragraph to obtain such employments and training as are so mentioned ; and

(c) to make the arrangements made in pursuance of the preceding paragraphs available to persons who seek to make use of them and are either such persons as are mentioned in those paragraphs or persons attending or leaving universities in Great Britain ;

and it shall also be the duty of each local education authority to arrange for officers of the authority to be appointed to administer the arrangements made by the authority in pursuance of this subsection.

(2) A local education authority may, and shall so far as the Secretary of State directs it to do so, make arrangements in accordance with the following subsection—

(a) for the purpose of assisting persons (other than those mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the preceding subsection) who are seeking employment or different employment to determine—

(i) what employments are suitable for persons having their capabilities, and

(ii) what training they require and is available to them in order to fit them for those employments ; and

(b) for the purpose of assisting those persons to obtain such employments and training as are mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

(3) The arrangements made in pursuance of subsection (1) or (2) of this section shall be arrangements—

(a) for the giving of assistance by collecting and furnishing information about persons seeking and offering employment and persons providing facilities for training; and

(b) for providing advice and guidance for the purposes mentioned in that subsection,

and may include arrangements for the provision of services calculated to facilitate the carrying out of arrangements made in pursuance of paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection.

(4) Subject to the following subsection, it shall be the duty of local education authorities to consult and co-operate with one another to the extent appropriate for the purpose of securing that the functions conferred on them by subsections (1) and (2) of this section are performed efficiently; and, without prejudice to the powers exercisable by an authority for the purpose of performing that duty, any two or more local education authorities may make arrangements on such terms as they think fit (which may include terms as to the making of payments by one authority to another)—

(a) for any of the authorities to perform any of those functions on behalf of another of the authorities as respects the whole or part of the other authority's area;

(b) for the authorities to act jointly in performing any of those functions as respects the whole or parts of their areas.

(5) The Commission and any local education authority may make arrangements for the performance by the Commission on behalf of the authority of any function conferred on the authority by virtue of subsection (1) of this section or the preceding subsection so far as it relates to subsection (1), and any such arrangements—

(a) may be made in respect of the whole or part of the area of the authority; and

(b) except in a case in which the Secretary of State has authorised the Commission to disregard this paragraph, must include provision for the making by the authority to the Commission of payments intended to defray the expenditure incurred by the Commission by virtue of the arrangements;

and the preceding provisions of this subsection shall have effect during any period when this subsection is in force before the establishment of the Employment Service Agency as if paragraph (b) were omitted and for any reference to the Commission there were substituted a reference to the Secretary of State.

(6) The Secretary of State may by order provide that the preceding subsection, subsection (5) of the following section, this subsection and any arrangements in force by virtue of the preceding subsection or the said subsection (5) shall cease to have effect on a day specified in the order; and different days may be specified in pursuance of this subsection in relation to Scotland and the rest of Great Britain.

(7) The reference to part-time attendance in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section does not include—

(a) part-time attendance where none of the relevant classes begins on any day before five o'clock in the evening; and

(b) any other part-time attendance as to which the Secretary of State directs that it shall be disregarded for the purposes of that paragraph ;

except that the said reference does include part-time attendance by persons who satisfy the local education authority in question that their attendance is with a view to employment.