The growing number of university students has been criticised by the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) as firms find it increasingly difficult to recruit employees with the right skills.
Figures, from the the Higher Education Statistics Agency, show that the number of first year HE students at UK publicly funded institutions passed the million mark for the first time during the 2003/4 academic year.
As the number of graduates entering non-graduate level jobs increases, the BCC warned that the increase was not good news for businesses looking to recruit.
There were 1,012,215 first year students in 2003/04 compared to 977,010 in 2002/03 – a rise of 3.6 per cent.
Bill Midgley, president of the BCC, said: “Employers do not want more young people shipped off to University just to meet the government’s 50 per cent target, instead they need young people equipped with the right skills for the workplace."
The BCC also stress that the number of businesses reporting difficulties finding a skilled workforce has doubled during the last ten years.
Midgley said: “Businesses urgently need young people to pursue vocational routes of learning such as apprenticeships."
