Catalogue description Departmental Policies on the Training, Monitoring of Training Standards and Finances of Training and Enterprise Councils

The series is arranged in file reference order.

Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) are independent, local, employer led councils which were established throughout the country during 1990 and 1991 to take over the responsibility for running the training and enterprise programmes previously organised by the Department of Employment's Training Agency. The proposal to devolve responsibility for these programmes to a local level and to inject a strong degree of private enterprise into them was announced in the White Paper Employment for the 1990s, published in December in 1988.

Services offered by the TECs included; training for young people, employer investment in people, career development loans, business enterprise services, business links, out of work childcare initiative, work experience, initiatives funded through the Single Regeneration Budget Challenge Fund and Local Competitiveness Budget, adult learning information and guidance, skills for small businesses, education business partnerships, further education competitiveness and development funds.

These records were originally registered in the Employment and Training Division of the Employment Department Group in 1990. This then moved to the Resources and Strategy Directorate TEC Research and Evaluation Branch in 1991 before moving to the Training, Enterprise and Education Directorate Education Division between 1993 and 1995. From 1996 TEC work was covered by the Employment and Lifelong Learning Directorate.