The Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the Global Economy
The Leitch Review was established in December 2004 to consider the skills profile the UK should aim to achieve by 2020 in order to maximise growth, productivity and social justice. The Review concluded that skills are an increasingly central driver of productivity, employment and fairness and that the UK must achieve a world class skills base if it is to improve its prosperity and fairness in the new global economy.
The Review states, "Our nation’s skills are not world class and we run the risk that this will undermine the UK’s long-term prosperity. Productivity continues to trail many of our main international comparators. Despite recent progress, the UK has serious social disparities with high levels of child poverty, poor employment rates for the disadvantaged, regional disparities and relatively high income inequality. Improving our skill levels can address all of these problems."
"We also have very considerable weaknesses. Today, more than one third of adults do not hold the equivalent of a basic school-leaving qualification. Almost one half of adults (17 million) have difficulty with numbers and one seventh (5 million) are not functionally literate. This is worse than our principal comparators. Continuing to improve our schools will not be enough to solve these problems. Today, over 70 per cent of our 2020 workforce have already completed their compulsory education."
"Our intermediate and technical skills lag countries such as Germany and France. We have neither the quantity nor the quality of necessary vocational skills. We have made enormous progress expanding higher education – and this is critical to becoming a high-skill economy. Over one quarter of adults hold a degree, but this is less than many of our key comparators, who also invest more. Our skills base compares poorly and, critically, all of our comparators are improving. Being world class is a moving target. It is clear from my analysis that, despite substantial investment and reform plans already in place, by 2020, we will have managed only to ‘run to stand still’. On our current trajectory, the UK’s comparative position will not have improved significantly. In the meantime, the world will have continued to change and the global environment will be even harsher. The scale of the challenge is daunting."
"The prize for achieving this ambition is great – a more prosperous and fairer society. The Review estimates a possible net benefit of at least £80 billion over 30 years. This would come from a boost in the productivity growth rate of up to 15 per cent and an increase in the employment growth rate by around 10 per cent. Social deprivation, poverty and inequality will diminish."
A copy of this report can be accessed here.