Ambition 2020: Word Class Skills and Jobs for the UK, challenges government and businesses to redouble their efforts to raise their ambitions and the nation’s skills to prevent the UK slipping behind international competitors over the next decade in jobs, productivity and competitiveness.

This first progress report to the governments of the UK by the Commission finds that there have been significant improvements in the UK’s skills levels over the last decade. The numbers of high-skilled people have increased by more than a third - more than three million people - in the last ten years, while the numbers without qualifications have fallen by a quarter, or more than 1.5 million people. Skills provision has become more employment-responsive, apprenticeship numbers across the UK have risen dramatically, and new schemes link skills to job opportunities for the unemployed more strongly. The UK is now the third most successful country in Europe for adult participation in lifelong learning.

This represents solid progress over that period, significantly better than in the previous decade. However, the real challenge derives from the progress other nations have been making since the 1990s, and requires the UK to now set and measure its progress on productivity, employment and skills against its principal global competitors.