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Nearly a third of people to benefit so far from the government's New Deal for the unemployed have chosen to go into full-time education and training.

Of the 69,340 people who took up one of the four New Deal options between April and the end of October, 21,660 opted for full-time education and training. Fifty-five per cent (38,400) went into jobs, 4,800 opted to work for the voluntary sector and 4,480 chose to work for one of the government's environmental taskforces. In the same period the total starting New Deal was 185,000.