Peter Hoskin

Introducing Britain’s skills crisis

Did you know: Britain trails well behind other countries such as the US, Germany and Poland when it comes to educating its workforce? Did you know: the number of young people not in employment, education or training has risen by around 40 per cent over the last decade? Did you know … oh, you get the idea. All the statistics, and more, are in the booklet on Britain’s Skills Crisis that is included in this week’s Spectator. For CoffeeHousers who don’t buy the magazine (although you should, etc – purchasing options here), you can read the supplement for free via this snazzy, page-turning whatsit. We’ll also put one or two of its articles up on Coffee House in due course.        

The proposition behind the supplement is straightforward enough: that Britain has a shortage of well-trained workers. From there, we investigate how it might be fixed. There’s an article by David Willetts on the government’s thinking in this area. The pop impressario – and train enthusiast – Pete Waterman rails against the rise of meaningless qualifications. Reihan Salam says we ought to heed the ideas of Matthew B. Crawford, and become a nation of tinkerers again. Toby Young argues that young people should learn Latin if they want to get ahead in a ferocious labour market. And there are artices by Ross Clark, Fraser and yours truly.   

To save this post from being an extended plug, however, I thought I’d reprint part of a Q&A we did with Mark Lovell. Mark is in charge of A4e, one of the private welfare companies that operates alongside the government to help unemployed people back into work.

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