give me any oportunity and i'll recommend
the Hofner Colorama..

amazing value for money as it was never advertised well enough to ignite mass market interest
so is now being discounted at ridiculously low clearance bin prices.

great minimalist Gibson style woodwork and slim fast set-neck
superb sounding humbuckers [or P90 version if preferred]
a beginner guitarists dream electric guitar

sounds good from mellow jazz to heavy rock styles..

[hardtail, so no tremelo to blight the tuning and intonation
for inexperienced players]

then just need a 10 or 15 watt practice amp
with headphone socket to sort out the basics

ebay listings:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=hofner+colorama&category


only proviso, this is a potential working pro standard instrument,
sold very cheap and underpriced,
so depending where you buy them,
may expect less than accurate straight from factory set up,
and the occasional dud with uneven frets..
but if in that situation you should be able to demand a better replacement.

an electric guitar like thi would leave plenty spare change
to also buy an art of lutherie / epiphone/ yamaha/ samick/ etc acoustic..

seriously, these days, cost should be no barrier to providing a beginner
with both a good acoustic and an electric guitar
to learn to play equally well..