HC Deb 19 April 2004 vol 420 cc40-1W
Phil Sawford

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills In hat action his Department takes to monitor the type of employment opportunities offered to graduates. [164468]

Alan Johnson

The Department commissions, collates and monitors a wide range of data on graduate employment and employability in general, including: monitoring surveys, research and analyses produced by a variety of organisations, including employer and graduate careers services groups and academic research, on graduate vacancies, employment and starting salaries; monitoring and analysing data on the graduate labour market from the annual First Destinations Survey of Higher Education leavers, which are collected and published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the quarterly Labour Force Survey, collected and published by the Office for National Statistics; commissioning a survey of 1999 graduates to track earnings and employment outcomes and investigate their careers three and a half years following graduation, the results of which are expected to be published later this year; and maintaining a broad intelligence base on the graduate labour market, which is updated as new research and findings emerge.