Jobless graduates: Mrs Thatcher's concern

Education Secretary Mrs Margaret Thatcher today expressed concern at the number of unemployed graduates and said that she hoped later in the day to discuss the problem with a group of industrialists.

“We are turning out 3000 or 4000 more graduates a year than we can see jobs for,” she said at the opening of the £961,720 Wearside College of Further Education.

“The problem is whether to cut back or to give as many people as possible the benefit of good education and training so that they themselves will be able to seize whatever opportunities come their way.

“So far we have taken the course that we should give as much education and training as possible because it is never possible exactly to predict what jobs will be available or where.

“It is not for want of trying. We haven't always got our sums right, but we have succeeded in training enough skills for there always to be sufficient, wherever they may be wanted.

“Our problem now is in training rather more than are temporarily needed, to find suitable and satisfying jobs for all those who want them.”