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Adequate funding and a curriculum overhaul key to tackling skills deficit

Curriculum Government policy Skills
To tackle the skills deficit, we need adequate funding across schools and further education and we must challenge our narrow, subject-based curriculum, argues Dr Mary Bousted

In 2013, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched a new adult skills survey of people aged 16 to 65 across 24 countries.

Young people in the UK aged 16 to 24 perform less well in literacy and numeracy compared to adults aged 55 to 65. Skills levels in the UK are disproportionately influenced by social inequality compared to other countries, with individuals from poor families much less likely to progress up the skills ladder.

The issue here is not just absolute levels of poverty but also inequality. In the UK’s deeply divided and unequal society, poverty and inequality interact to compound disadvantage and to place artificial limits on the educational achievements of poor children and young people.

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