My interpretation of the data is that, in fact, most employers find that most of their workers currently have the basic skills needed to carry out their basic tasks. When we’re marketing basic skills to employers, given these statistics, it is therefore even more important to have a greater understanding of the wider issues of the changing workplace: to be able to talk about the literacy and numeracy that workers need when they’re taking part in training activities; when they’re applying for promotion opportunities; when they’re learning about the operation of new machinery; when they’re engaging with changes at the workplace; when they’re taking on new responsibilities; when they’re taking part in quality meetings, talking to customers; also when they’re interpreting their pay slip and their pensions data; and even when they’re taking part in union activities and local community activities, and helping their children with their homework.

Comparison Between Britain and Germany

Information about comparisons between Britain and Germany’s economic performance is taken from work by Mary O’Mahony from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). This has recently been updated and further information is available in a paper by Mary O’Mahony and Willem de Boer (2002) available on the NIESR website. Table 1 and table 5 within this report do show an 11 per cent difference in relative labour productivity levels, and an adjustment for “low skills” of around a quarter of that figure.(3)

It is important, however, to note the definitions of “skills levels” used within this research. Germany is quoted as having 20 per cent of employees with “low skills” whereas the UK’s figure for “low skilled workers” is given as 57 per cent. The government has, of course, never suggested that over half of the UK workforce has “poor basic skills.” Looking closer, it can be seen that the definition of “low skills” used in the report is in fact “those with high school or no qualifications;” that is, it includes all workers without degrees or vocational qualifications. It must also be stressed that, according to this definition, “low skills” will include a high proportion of workers with GCSEs, O levels and A levels.(4) The definition used for “low skilled workers” is certainly not a comparative measure of poor basic skills in the two countries and, I would affirm, should therefore not be used in this way. It is merely a reflection of the different importance lent to the achievement of vocational qualifications in Germany and in England. The report itself points out that “the measure [of low skill] is deficient in that many skills may be acquired by informal on the job training and remain uncertified.”