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PSA 2. Improve the skills of the population, on the way to ensuring a world-class skills base by 2020

Vision

Increasing the skills of the workforce will enable the UK to increase its capacity to respond flexibly to new challenges. By eradicating skills gaps and shortages and supporting individuals and businesses to acquire the skills they need to succeed, the UK economy can benefit in terms of higher productivity, greater social mobility and improved overall economic performance. The UK will be able to compete effectively in the global economy on the basis of high skills, high value-added business strategies, and high performing public services, driven by the skills of the workforce.

The education and skills acquired by each person help determine their life chances - whether they will be economically, socially and geographically mobile, or whether they will be trapped in poverty and low aspiration. The ambition is to create an economy in which every person has the opportunity to realise individual potential, overcome disadvantage and achieve economic well-being.

The Government's long-term vision is that the UK is a world leader on skills, in the upper quartile of OECD rankings by 2020, meeting the recommendation by the Leitch Review of Skills, which proposed a series of stretching objectives for the UK to reach by 2020. These objectives form the cornerstone of the Government's vision:

95 per cent of adults to achieve the basic skills of functional literacy and numeracy;
exceeding 90 per cent of adults qualified to at least level 2, with a commitment to achieve 95 per cent as soon as possible;
68 per cent of the adult population qualified to level 3;
increasing apprenticeships to 500,000 a year; and
over 40 per cent of the adult population qualified to level 4 and above.

Measurement

With the Government wishing to increase skills levels across all areas of the workforce, a number of different indicators have been selected:

Indicator 1 Proportion of people of working age achieving functional literacy and numeracy skills
Indicator 2 Proportion of working age adults qualified to at least full Level 2
Indicator 3 Proportion of working age adults qualified to at least full level 3
Indicator 4 Proportion of apprentices who complete the full apprentice framework
Indicator 5 Proportion of working age adults qualified to Level 4 and above
Indicator 6 Higher Education participation rate

Target by 2011

Each indicator has been assigned a national target level for 2011 (in line with the longer-term Leitch targets, where applicable):

597,000 people of working age to achieve a first level 1 or above literacy qualification, and 390,000 to achieve a first entry level 3 or above numeracy qualification.
79% of working age adults qualified to at least full Level 2
56% of working age adults qualified to at least full level 3
130,000 apprentices to complete the full apprenticeship framework in 2010/11
36% of working age adults qualified to Level 43 and above by 2014, with an interim milestone of 34% by 2011.
Increase participation in Higher Education towards 50% of those aged 18 to 30 with growth of at least a percentage point every two years to the academic year 2010/11.