PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

When I was younger, my grandmother was always able to pluck out a Welsh proverb from thin air to describe any situation. One of the ones she was particularly fond of quoting, especially when I came back home from university, was “Nerth gwlad, ei gwybodaeth” or roughly translated, “a nation’s strength is its knowledge”. As this nation looks set to go through another period of change and uncertainty, that proverb rings truer every day and the importance of the development of skills and knowledge has become even more critical to the competitiveness of the UK economy. The importance of the challenges we face have been pointed out in a number of recent studies. For example, a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses found that, at an owner-manager level, the low levels of management and leadership competences is affecting productivity by having a negative effect on the growth potential of small firms. In fact, only a quarter of smaller businesses had undertaken management tra...

As we enter the final phases of negotiation for exiting Europe, it is critical that the UK puts itself in the strongest competitive position possible to make the best of any opportunity that may arise for the economy as we look to develop new trading partnerships globally. One of the greatest concerns of businesses remains the availability and development of skills, especially in a fast-changing global environment and a study from the UK Government suggests that addressing this is not going to be easy going forward. The report “Future of Skills & Lifelong Learning” demonstrates unequivocally that there needs to be some dramatic improvements across the whole spectrum from not only in raising the level of qualifications across the population but in using those qualifications effectively within the workplace. One of the key issues raised is the fact that not only do young adults have poor literacy and numeracy but that the UK is falling further behind international competitors...