Prosperity for all in the global economy : world class skills : final report

How is the UK placed to respond to this challenge?We have many important strengthsan excellent higher education system where more people then ever are studying for degrees; many good initiatives on vocational training; an increasingly effective school system; and a strong record of improvement over the past decade.We also have very considerable weaknesses.Today, more than one third of adults do not hold the equivalent of a basic school-leaving qualification.Almost one half of adults (17 million) have difficulty with numbers and one seventh (5 million) are not functionally literate.This is worse than our principal comparators.Continuing to improve our schools will not be enough to solve these problems.Today, over 70 per cent of our 2020 workforce have already completed their compulsory education.