A Trilogy of views on YTS

The Youth Training Scheme is a bold experiment in providing the bridge from school to work. It contains many innovations such as the managing agent concept. No pilot project this: in its scale it is, for an experiment, breath‐taking. And it has been mounted against severe time pressures. Over a full one per cent of the Government's income has gone into it. If it succeeds it will become an important new and permanent feature of national life: if it fails the MSC will sink with it and someone will have to pick up the bits and put something else in its place without undue delay. As it proceeds unpredicted pitfalls and weaknesses appear — as they are sure to do. The stage has just been reached when analysts are beginning to feel confident in identifying these weaknesses. It is important to maintain a public dialogue on the strengths and weaknesses of the system so that, if adaptations are needed or a major overhaul of the system undertaken, these can be brought about quickly.