Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs for the UK: Key Findings and Implications for Action: The 2010 Report
This report is our second annual assessment of how well we are doing and what we need to do to achieve our ambition to be World Class by 2020. It aims to provide a sound evidence base and an agenda on which future success can be built.
Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs for the UK: Key Findings and Implications for Action: The 2010 Report (PDF, 215 Kb)
Published July 2010
Last year we published the first Ambition 2020 report. This assessed the UK’s progress towards our world class ambition of being one of the top 8 countries in the world for skills, jobs and productivity. We found that we were just short of being world class in terms of employment (where we were ranked 10th); and productivity (where we were ranked 11th). Regarding skills, despite significant progress in recent years, we were ranked 12th, 18th and 17th on high level, intermediate and low level skills respectively.
Based on this analysis we concluded that by 2020 our relative position would barely have improved and whilst we would be closer to being world class on higher level skills, our position on intermediate and low level skills would actually deteriorate. We concluded by developing a framework in which to understand the skills and employment agenda and which could be used to develop a coherent and comprehensive skills and employment policy which would make progress towards our 2020 world class ambitions more achievable.
We again follow this framework, which leads us to discuss
(i) the ‘prosperity’ agenda (how we are faring on economic performance, employment and productivity);
(ii) current skills levels and progress and prospects for the future;
(iii) other measures of skill development, in particular measures of training activity and participation in both individuals and employers;
(iv) the extent of skills mismatch between the skills available and the skills required;
(v) employer demand for skills; and
(vi) the role of public policy in enhancing employment and skills.
