Best ladders of opportunity' Government Skills Initiatives in the UK'

1
Best ladders of opportunity.Government Skills
Initiatives in the UK.

• Presenter Jane Simmons
• Organisation Hope Business School, Liverpool
  Hope University
• Address Hope Park, Liverpool, L16 9JD.
• Telephone [phone]
• Email address simmonj_at_hope.ac.uk
• Conference theme the student lifecycle.

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• The title of this paper is a quotation from a
  speech given by, the then UK education secretary,
  Ruth Kelly to the Association of Colleges
  conference in Birmingham on November 16, 2005.
• In that speech she suggested that the economic
  imperative of education, training and skills is
  clear and realFor most people, the best ladders
  of opportunity we can give them are the skills
  and qualifications to get a decently paid,
  sustainable, rewarding job.
• This focus of this paper is UK government
  initiatives over the last forty, or so, years
  which have been designed to both upskill the
  workforce and to improve the UKs global
  competitive position.

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Summary of key UK government educational
initiatives and UK in world educational rankings 1
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Summary of key UK government educational
initiatives and UK in world educational rankings 2
5
Summary of key UK government educational
initiatives and UK in world educational rankings 3
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Summary of key UK government educational
initiatives and UK in world educational rankings 4
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Conclusions

• By 1989 little progress appeared to have been
  made in upskilling the workforce. Gavyn Davies,
  Chief UK Economist at Goldman Sachs at that time,
  was quoted as saying a modern developed economy
  can only prosper if it has a labour force with
  skills and education to compete with the best.
  Ours patently hasnt, The Guardian (16/8/1989).
• Moving forward fifteen years the same problems in
  relation to workforce skills were still being
  identified. Gordon Brown (2004), the British
  Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, stated
  that if we are to succeed in a world where
  offshoring can be an opportunityour mission (is)
  to make the British people the best educated,
  most skilled, best trained in the world..

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Leitch Report

• Leitch report (2006, 1), considered the
  importance of re-skilling the workforce
  summarised the position that time in this way
  our nations skills are not world class and we
  run the risk that this will undermine the UKs
  long term prosperity.
• That report highlighted an even more critical
  fact that over 70 of the UK 2020 workforce has
  already completed their compulsory education
  many of them will now be unable to acquire the
  new qualifications necessary to meet the
  challenges of a global economy because of the new
  ELQ funding regime.

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Conclusions

• In the ten years between 1997 and 2007 UK
  government spending on education rose from 29
  billion to 77.4 billion
• 2008 OECD survey warned that UK educational
  system was lagging behind its western European
  neighbours at both secondary and tertiary levels.
  

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References

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  Exchequer Gordon Brown at the CBI annual
  conference in Birmingham, available at
  http//www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeche
  s/press/2004/press_88_04.cfm, accessed 16/1/2007.
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• Learning and Skills Council (2006) Skills in
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  Prosperity for all in the global economy-world
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