§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action the Government have taken to improve skills in the UK through better education for young people and greater training opportunities for those in the workforce. [124215]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe Government have introduced many improvements in recent years to raise the levels of skills in the workforce, including: major school reforms; the expansion of modern apprenticeships; and new initiatives such as Learndirect's network of learning centres, Skills for Life and the Union Learning Fund. On 9 July 2003 we will be publishing a groundbreaking Skills Strategy, which outlines how these developments and other new ones will be used to bring about the further transformation in skills the country needs in order to support a productive, modern economy.
§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of the workforce in the UK have at least level 2 skills; and how many adults lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. [124217]
§ Alan JohnsonThe Labour Force Survey in autumn 2002 showed that 70.9 per cent. of the workforce in the UK were qualified to at least level 2.
The International Adult Literacy Survey in 1996 estimated that in Great Britain1 there were 7.9 million adults aged 16–65 who lacked basic literacy skills (below level 1), equivalent to 22 per cent. of the population aged 16–65. The survey also showed that 18.6 million adults lacked basic numeracy skills (below level 1), equivalent to 51 per cent. of the population aged 16–65.
1 IALS data is not available for the UK