§ 37. Dr. Brayasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what systematic inquiry he has made into the future demand for engineers and in particular for electronic engineers; and what steps he has taken to increase the supply.
§ Sir Keith JosephI am aware of a number of published reports concerned with demand for engineers and information technology specialists. In addition, the Government have recently established a committee, chaired by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, which is to report later this year on manpower demand in the field of information technology.
I have made known both to the UGC and to the national advisory body for local authority higher education (NAB) my wish to see increasing emphasis on provision in science and technology subjects. Following this, graduate output in these is set to rise steadily between now and 1987–88. In particular, my statement to the House on 16 December 1982, at cols. 187–189, gave details of the Government's proposals to increase the number of students in IT subjects in higher education, including eletronic engineering. This initiative began to be implemented during the current 110W academic year, and as a result there are some 1,100 more undergraduate and HND students and 1,200 more postgraduate students in these subjects than had previously been planned. By 1985–86, as a result of this initiative, there are expected to be some 5,000 more such students in total than under previous plans.