§ 18. Mr. Hugh Jenkinsasked the Minister of Technology what has been the effect of his intervention in various industries in terms of the number of graduates employed, of pay received by qualified staff and in other ways; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BennI am glad to say that there is some evidence of an increase since 1965 in the total number of graduates employed in industry; and this is certainly true of employment of qualified scientists and engineers, particularly in the electronics and machine tool industries.
§ Mr. JenkinsIs not this directly related to Government support of and intervention in these industries? Will not my right hon. Friend take pride in this rather than in the supersonic white elephant?
§ Mr. BennI am sorry that my hon. Friend weakened the impact of what he said by adding another point relevant to another Question. The number of engineering and science graduates having their first appointment in industry was 60 per cent. higher in 1967–68 than in 1964–65, which relates back to the expansion of the universities. In some key industries such as machine tools and electronics there was an increase of about one-third in 1968 over the 1965 figure.
§ Mr. FortescueIs not the increase of science graduates in industry a direct reflection of the decrease of science graduates in education? Is the Minister co-ordinating his efforts with those of the Secretary of State for Education and Science to see that our schools and universities are not denuded of science graduates?
§ Mr. BennWe are trying to encourage more people to go into science and engineering at school and to this extent I coordinate with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science. Nobody disputes that we want to get more engineers and scientists into industry. When they get there we hope that they will get responsibility at an earlier age, for it was that more than 806 anything else that appeared to be influencing those who emigrated at an earlier period.