Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to improve supply and demand data for graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. [139596]

Mr Willetts, Minister of State (Minister for Universities and Science): The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) already collects and publishes a substantial amount of data on the supply of graduates from UK Higher Education Institutions from different disciplines, including science subjects. For example, HESA recently published information on higher education qualifiers by subject area in Table 7 of the Statistical First Release 'Enrolments and Qualifications Obtained at UK Higher Education Institutions 2011/12', which can be found at the following link.

http://www.hesa.ac.uk/content/view/2667/393/

Subject information is collected and published by HESA using the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS); this allows for the statistics to be made available to a fine level of detail, such as aerospace engineering, microbiology or mathematical sciences, while also allowing users to group the information at the broader levels used in the publication mentioned above.

HESA also collects and publishes information on the employment outcomes of graduates from UK Higher Education Institutions; the most recent publication of such information was in the Statistical First Release 'Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2010/11'. Similarly these data are available by qualifying subject and by standard occupation classification six months after graduation for those graduates who have progressed to employment. More information is available at the following link.

http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2541&lte...

There is no specific single data source on the demand for graduates in STEM subjects. A key issue here is that graduates in these subjects can fill a wide variety of jobs. Some of these jobs will be clearly subject-specific and STEM-related, whereas others will be less directly linked—though that does not mean that individuals in those jobs are not using their STEM skills.

However, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) does undertake forecasts of future employment in its occasional 'Working Futures' series (part-funded by BIS). The most recent report covered labour market projections for 2010-20 and was published in 2012. As well as overall employment it also contains projections by broad occupational and sectoral groups—e.g. jobs in engineering, manufacturing, construction. This is available at:

http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/er41-working-futures-2010-2020

There have also been specific studies into the supply of and demand for STEM skills—for example, UKCES published an occasional paper on the Supply and Demand for high-level STEM skills in December 2011. This paper can be found at:

http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/the-supply-of-and-demand-for-high-l...

The introduction of the Key Information Set (KIS) in September 2012 was a major development in helping students to make informed course choices. KIS provides comparable information on individual undergraduate courses in the areas which students have said is most useful to them. This includes the employment destinations and salaries of previous graduates. KIS is available via each course page and via the updated national comparison website, Unistats:

http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/

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