ALLOCATION AND NEED IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF TRAINING BUDGETS - THE CASE OF ENGLISH TRAINING AND ENTERPRISE COUNCILS

The Department of Employment in its White Paper, Employment for the 19 90s, outlined a series of measures designed to improve barriers to emp loyment and training provision, arising from a more general recognitio n that the UK was failing to deliver high quality vocational education and training. Amongst these measures was the development of Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs). This paper examines the allocation of budgets to TECs from the perspective of need. In the first instance, a n index of need is established for each TEC area, using the technique of factor analysis. The allocation of per capita budgets is then discu ssed and comparisons drawn between these and the ranking of TECs produ ced by the needs index. An alternative budget allocation mechanism is proposed which relates resources more closely to the requirements of T EC areas. Finally, the degree of over/underfunding in the regional dis tribution of funds is considered.