New Perspectives for Learning - Briefing
Paper 13
Low Skills: A Problem For
Europe
Context of the Research
The relentless fall in the demand
for low-skilled labour is a matter of serious concern for European society.
Since the beginning of the 1990’s the gap between the earnings of high
skilled and low skilled workers has widened and in many countries the
unemployment rate for people without qualifications is four times higher
than for university graduates.
This research focused on France, the
Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal and the UK, and used additional information
from other EU countries like Germany. It looked at the reasons for the
changing situation of the low-skilled on the labour market. It also
investigated the extent to which employers’ demand for the low-skilled was
falling and why, and explored the factors affecting the supply of skills,
particularly low-skilled adults in the workforce. The research focused on
the low-skilled individuals who have left full-time education after the
completion of their period of compulsory education.
Key Conclusions
The following conclusions were
reached: -
1. Despite a sharp decline in the supply of low-skilled individuals on
the labour market, their labour market situation has deteriorated over the
last decade, as the supply of low-skilled individuals continues to exceed
demand at current labour costs.
2. Demand for those with low skills has declined as a result of
technical change, which requires more advanced skill levels.
Demand for those with low-skills will continue, but only in certain
sectors of the economy. Demand will vary from country to country but largely
as a function of relative labour costs.
3. The employment sectors in which the low-skilled groups are
concentrated are either contracting or not expanding low-skilled employment
relative to other skill groups.
4.
In most European countries it will take at least a decade to reduce
the low-skills group at current rates of progress.
5. Young people should be encouraged to aspire to achieving at least an
ISCED 3 (upper secondary) level
qualification as a minimum educational requirement for coping with the
future demands of the workplace.
6. Employers claim that unskilled jobs now require better communication
and social skills, and that many low-skilled individuals lack these skills.
7. A certificate to demonstrate personal qualities, skills and abilities
could benefit those who have not achieved traditionally recognised
qualifications.
8. Employers do get a high return on investment in work-based training,
but incentives for the low-skilled group to participate in workplace
training are insufficient. The project found that:
a) Poorly qualified individuals receive less training than the more
highly qualified.
b) Older individuals receive less training than the young.
c)
Low-skilled individuals are more reluctant to participate in
employer-provided training than higher skilled individuals.
d) Innovative incentives and support are needed to encourage those
already in the labour market to develop their skills to a minimum level,
i.e. Individual Learning Accounts as in the UK.
9. Wage subsidies for older low-skilled workers who are soon to reach
retirement age may be necessary to counteract labour market exclusion.
10.Current policy failures in education and training, were identified:
a) Schools in all European countries continue to produce some young
people inadequately equipped or unprepared to take advantage of further
education and training. In some European countries at least a third of young
people are inadequately prepared.
b)
Worryingly, a proportion of those have developed an aversion to further education and training because of their experiences at school.
c) Because of this, schools need to shift concentration from selection
for higher education and focus on the achievement of a minimum level for
all. This means maintaining high levels of self-esteem during compulsory
education.
d) The adult education system fails because it replicates the school
system. This has meant that relatively few mature adults have improved their
qualifications.
e) Low demand for further training by the low-skills group needs to be
addressed.
Key Recommendations
The project recommends that a
‘minimum learning platform’ should be established, which would set an
agreed level of knowledge, skills, and personal qualities that all
individuals would be entitled to and expected to acquire.
Recommendations for establishing
this platform include: -
1. Each European country should produce its own policies for a
‘minimum learning platform’, which would address the specific
country’s problems and challenges with their low-skilled group and their
labour market.
2. However, a minimum platform should be informed by a set of values
that individuals in all countries can share by virtue of their European
citizenship i.e. respect for human rights, the rule of law and democratic
decision making.
3. A new balance needs to be established in education between formalised
knowledge and personal and social skills.
4.
An emphasis on outcomes of the education process could ensure that
more individuals attain the minimum threshold, although this could present
problems with assessment by conventional means.
5.
The workplace should play more of a role in delivering some of the
elements of the minimum platform. This would require a new Social
Partnership to develop and use the resources of the workplace for learning
and individual development.
6.
Funding for the distribution of educational resources will need
rethinking, as costs for the minority of those who have difficulty with
basic skills will be high.
7. It is advised that the current
pattern of European entitlement to nine years of basic (compulsory)
education should include an entitlement to achieve the “minimum learning
platform”, although some might require additional years of education to
achieve this level.
8. A learning entitlement (e.g. Individual Learning Accounts as in UK)
for all citizens will be necessary to ensure access to education at any age
and in any situation (i.e. shopping centres).
9.
The minimum learning platform has to
be open to all, not selectively based on performance. Entitlements
and rights should be balanced by duties of citizens to take full advantage
of entitlements provided.
10.The platform should not be fixed as
requirements will change over time and skills that are not essential to
today’s labour market may be indispensable in the future.
Further Information
The full title of the project is:
"Education and Training New Job
Skills Needs and the Low-Skilled” (1996-99)
The full title of the final report
is “Low Skills: A Problem for
Europe” McIntosh S and Steedman
H, published by DG Research of the European Commission, Brussels 2000
(Copies available from CEP at address given below £5 including
delivery)
Full
report, Abstract,
Partner
details
Contact Person
Dr. Hilary Steedman
London School of Economics and Political Science
Centre for Economic Performance
London
WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 955 7789
Fax: +44 207 955 6971
Email: h.steedman@lse.ac.uk
or contact
pjb Associates pjb@pjb.co.uk Tel +44 1353
667973 for more information about other Briefing Papers on “New
Perspectives for Learning”
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updated 28 June 2007