Thursday 31 May 2012

Well Carwyn, for Wales read England.

In today's (£) Times ...
The failings that spell trouble ahead for Britain – one in five can’t read or write.
Politicians dreaming of a high-tech, skills-based economy leading a march to recovery suffered a rude awakening at the hands of the European Commission yesterday. Britain, it says, is held back by having too many illiterate and innumerate adults with no qualifications and is not doing enough to help them.

According to research by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, the number of low-skilled jobs will fall by 51 per cent this decade, while medium and high-skilled jobs will rise by 16 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively. The Commission said that Britain could gain “significant economic and social benefits” from doing more to address the needs of people with no qualifications, including increasing their capacity to benefit from vocational training. "Given the long-term trends in demand for higher skills, the UK has not yet addressed its basic skills problems sufficiently. Many challenges remain, and there is no certainty that the UK can ensure that enough of the young people entering the labour market will have adequate skills in the short to medium term," it said. 
A report by the World Literacy Foundation found that one in five adults in Britain was “functionally” illiterate.

Brussels also told the Government that it needed to pursue a long-term strategy to improve the capacity and quality of its infrastructure, such as easing the pressures on transport and energy networks. It said that as part of the Government’s austerity measures, public sector net investment would fall sharply by 2014-15, "exacerbating shortcomings in transport infrastructure". It also said that a lack of housing supply was a potential source of instability. “The high levels of household debt accumulated over the past decade are linked closely to high house prices and represent an important imbalance in the UK economy,” it said

Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: "This is just the latest international organisation to warn that the Conservative-led Government urgently needs a plan for jobs and growth."

It's all devolved, the responsibility in our green and pleasant land rests firmly in the lap of the Labour led administration at Cardiff Bay.


3 comments:

  1. 'Labour led', no John Labour only. We had a 30/30 split at the last Assembly elections and Labour Education Ministers since devolution began, for once this isn't down to the other parties.

    Why anyone is surprised that 20% of the UK population can't read is write is mystery the signs have been there for years and all parties have ignored them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree anon, I can't imagine what it must be like not being able to read and write, what kind of life do these unfortunate people live.

    When I wrote "Labour led", I had a vision of Carwyn sitting atop a donkey with the 60 Assembly Members following, hands tied behind their back heads hung low .............

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