Higher-Level Skills in the UK

Abstract

This article provides an overview of current trends in the supply of higher-level skills in the UK. The author suggests that at higher levels increasing the supply of qualified people is unlikely to be an adequate measure to gain international competitive advantage, and that greater attention needs to given to increasing the quality (in terms of better and more relevant skills) and to stimulating demand for graduates in the wider economy. It is, she argues, difficult to justify expansion of the higher education sector in the absence of evidence of an increased requirement on the part of employers to match any growth in supply.

The articles that follow in this ‘Special Focus’ on skills needs discuss specific aspects of the labour market for higher-level skills. Gill Court considers the labour market for graduates in the USA and the lessons for other countries of moving to a mass higher education system; Helen Lawton Smith looks at national laboratories and the effects that recent political decisions have had on their role in skill supply and skill renewal; and finally Gill Court and Nick dagger assess data on the recruitment of non-national staff to research centres, highlighting the extent of the European mobility of scientists and engineers.