Illiteracy rate is a national disgrace, says Sir Digby

Sir Digby Jones recently spoke in London to launch a two-year campaign to get more businesses to give staff time off to improve their numeracy, literacy and basic IT skills. Sir Digby said employers were facing the "last chance saloon". If they did not act now, the Government would force them to provide training from 2010.

The launch coincided with the release of two studies showing that Britain is performing poorly against international comparisons of innovation and research and development. In one study by international business school Insead, Britain was ranked 16th of the OECD countries, behind Tunisia, in terms of the strength of its skills base. A separate report by the Demos think tank argued that Britain would be sidelined within 10 years by the emergence of Asian science and technology, and called for the Government to set up a £100 million research and development fund.

Sir Digby said employers had to be put at the heart of the provision of adult education across the UK. This approach was recommended by the Leitch Review.

(Telegraph, 18 January 2007)

Employers turn backs on skills

The TES has revealed that employers are failing to back the Government’s drive for a better skilled workforce and are instead demanding more unqualified people to fill low-grade jobs. The latest figures from the Department for Trade and Industry show the supply of people with qualifications at any level outstrips employer demand by almost five million.

Yet there is a shortage of four million people to fill jobs that require no qualifications in all sectors from service industries to manufacturing. The survey, produced for Adult Learners’ Week, and published in the report Road to Nowhere?, shows a big drop in numbers of workers studying or training – with the sharpest, 15%, among part-timers.

(TES, 14 June 2007)