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Teaching graduates in Northern Ireland are struggling to find work, new figures suggest.

Recent data from the General Teaching Council has shown that over a third of graduates who qualified as teachers within the last six years have still not found jobs in the industry.

This situation appears to have been made worse by the fact that over 1,000 teachers over 60 - and 49 over 65 - are still being employed.

As reported by the BBC, the General Teaching Council has emphasised that older teachers are perfectly entitled to keep on working.

However, the organisation also said it would welcome the introduction of a scheme whereby new teaching graduates are entitled to a year's employment, as is already the case in Scotland.

Student teachers in the UK are also facing financial problems.

In recent months the National Union of Students (NUS) and National Union of Teachers (NUT) have been fighting the 'hidden' costs faced by teacher training students.

The Hidden Costs campaign aims to get additional government funding for those students on teacher training courses to cover the costs of travel, equipment and essential classroom resources.

Last month, Richard Angell of the NUS national executive committee said that hidden costs - such as books, classroom equipment and uniforms - were unacceptable.

He explained that they act "as a barrier to completing the course" and exacerbate debt problems.