Select Committee on Education and Skills Sixth Report


6  CONCLUSIONS

105. Over the course of this inquiry we have covered a great deal of ground and have sought to engage as fully as possible with the business side of the skills agenda as well as the educational side. There have been a large number of detailed issues discussed, but there are some key general points which need to be emphasised.

106. A good grounding in the fundamental elements of literacy and numeracy are the key attributes that employers tell us that they want from those entering the workforce. If this is coupled with a sense of what is expected from them in the world of work, then many employers would, we believe, be considerably happier than at present. Greater levels of skills obviously have benefits for individuals, and the economy overall needs people with higher levels of skills, but how far that is a matter for the education sector and how far for businesses is not a question that has been decisively answered.

107. One thing that is certain is that qualifications mean nothing unless they are valued by all; those who teach them, those who study for them and those who use them as a means of determining which people to employ or to admit to educational institutions. The key test of the Government's proposals will be whether the significant boost they are aiming to give to vocational education and to the vital aspects of literacy and numeracy will be well received by employers in particular. But the burden does not lie all on the Government; employers have a real opportunity to help devise a system of vocationally-based education which meets their needs. Employers must engage with this process if they want to be taken seriously in their demands for educational improvement.

108. Finally, we return to a point that we made early on in this report. Improved skill levels are a necessary condition for higher productivity in the economy, but they are not in themselves sufficient to achieve that end. Unless attention is constantly paid to the other productivity drivers of enterprise, innovation, competition and investment, resources put into better education and training will not deliver the more productive economy that we seek.


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2005
Prepared 24 March 2005