§ Mr. Cormackasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether she will establish an advisory unit to assist newly qualified teachers in their quest for suitable employment, in view of the fact that some 17,500 of those who successfully completed teacher training courses in 1976 had not been able to enter the teaching profession by the beginning of the spring term 1977.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonThe hon. Member overstates the extent of teacher unemployment. In March only 5,195 people were registered as unemployed and seeking work as school teachers. I do not believe it would be helpful to set up an employment advisory unit since the current employment difficulties in the profession are caused by lack of vacancies, not by lack of information about them. There are already well established methods of obtaining posts through the Professional and Executive Register and the education Press. The newly qualifying have additional help through the careers advisory services in their training institutions to which my Department sends lists of local education authorities who would welcome more applications for particular types of posts.