The National Skills Task Force has been established by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment to assis
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The National Skills Task Force has been established by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment to assist him in developing a National Skills Agenda. The Task Force was asked to provide advice on the nature, extent and pattern of skill needs and shortages, including associated recruitment difficulties, how these are likely to change and what can be done to ease such problems. This paper is one of a series that has been commissioned to review and evaluate existing literature in a number of skills-related areas.as been commissioned to review and evaluate existing literature in a number of skills-related areas.
This paper examines the extent, nature and implications of spatial variations in skill levels across England. Following the introduction, Section 2 examines the reasons why skills are important to localities. In addition to the obvious potential for stimulating employment, earnings and living standards, the authors identify other important reasons such as globalisation, which is increasing competitive pressure both nationally and internationally, technological change which is transforming work organisation, and the consequent importance of ensuring that skill deficiencies and gaps are addressed. Section 3 looks at the extent and nature of spatial skill variations in the workforce as a whole and with young people at school. In Section 4 the authors look at the variations locally within 3 levels - at age 11, age 16 and in the workforce as a whole. Section 5 concentrates on the effects that spatial skill variations have on local economic performance - employment, competitiveness, earning and deprivation. Finally, Section 6 presents the implications for policy and future research and summarises the conclusions. The authors maintain that spatial skill variations are substantial at all levels of qualification both for young people and the workforce as a whole and that they are systematic, in that low skill localities are generally low skill at age 11, age 16 and in the workforce as a whole.
Other research reports in this series are indexed from TD/TNC 62.633 to TD/TNC 62.645 and from TD/TNC 62.647 to TD/TNC 62.651.
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Authors:
Campbell, Mike; Chapman, Rachael; Hutchinson, Jo
Corporate authors:
Great Britain. Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)
Date: 1999
Geographic subjects:
Europe; Great Britain
Resource type: Government report or paper
Series name: Skills Task Force research paper
Subjects:
Qualifications; Globalisation; Vocational education and training ... [+] Show more
Qualifications;
Globalisation;
Vocational education and training;
Policy;
Labour market;
Economics;
Skills and knowledge;
Employment [-] Show less
