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The Education Committee and the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee have agreed to carry out joint work on the contribution that education and skills make to productivity. In preparation for this work, the Committees jointly commissioned research from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which undertook a review of the literature on the main channels of influence by which education and skills appear to affect economic performance. The research compared the role played by education and training institutions, including schools, and the vocational systems in the following countries: United Kingdom; United States of America; France; and Germany. The research, written by Geoff Mason and Ana Rincon-Aznar of NIESR, is published as an appendix to this report.

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The Government's productivity plan was launched in July 2015. The Government considers it to be the 'first devoted sign of such a specific commitment to all the issues that are relevant for productivity'. The Committee's inquiry into the productivity plan found that the document has been described by many businesses as being too vague and long a document to be practical, and that its lack of specific and measurable policies means that there is a risk that the document is destined to collect dust on bookshelves across Whitehall. [The Committee has] recommended that the Government produces a clear supplementary document outlining the proposed implementation and measure of success of each policy in the productivity plan. The productivity plan is a long and broad document. The Committee's inquiry has looked at the three main themes of skills, innovation and investment. This report makes recommendations with the objective of seeing the productivity plan succeed and to add value to the policies of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

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