According to the Learning and Work Institute’s (L&W) research, the UK has a larger skill gap between the different regions of the country.
The Worlds Away report on skills and learning inequalities in the UK reveals that two thirds of adults living in London hold higher education qualifications compared to only one-third of those in Greater Lincolnshire.
West London (9%) has the highest qualification profile in West London, but the West Midlands (27%) has the lowest.
L&W stated that the skills gap is much wider than neighbouring countries. The West Midlands would also have 290,000 more people with GCSE equivalent qualifications, which is the same as the population of Coventry if there was less skill inequality in the UK, like in Denmark, France, and Sweden.
The institute also warns that the UK’s skills postcode lottery is likely to worsen over the next ten years.
Londoners could have 71% higher education qualifications by 2035. Hull and East Yorkshire would only have 29%. The capital, and other parts in South England, would have a skills base that is comparable to world-leading nations such as Japan. South Korea and Canada.
Skills in other parts, where they are improving more slowly and with a lower starting point, may fall further down the international rankings, and be overtaken by nations such as Estonia, Latvia, and New Zealand.
Stephen Evans, CEO of the Learning and Work Institute said, “This report reveals a tale of a two-country story, as London’s magnetic pull draws talent from all over the country. The result is a skills gap between the two areas, which has led to a cycle of self-reinforcing employment.
To break this cycle we must combine increased investment in infrastructure and jobs with greater efforts by both the government and employers to improve skills. The government’s ambitious plans for broad-based economic growth will not succeed if they are not combined with more efforts to improve skills by both the government and employers.
According to the report, if London were to close the gap with the rest of UK, 4.1 million additional people would have needed higher education outside London.
The report warns, however, that simply improving skills in a particular area will not suffice. The majority of areas are already losing graduates to cities such as London, Leeds and Bristol. Even if there is a significant change in the provision of skills, people from low-skilled areas may still follow better-paid jobs to these cities. L&W argue that skills improvement efforts should be matched with efforts to increase jobs and opportunities in the entire country.
Early 2025, the government will release a post-16 skill strategy and give more details about its Growth and Skills Levy. This is a reform of the current apprenticeship levies paid by large employers. The government has asked mayors and local governments in England to develop growth strategies. A spending review will be held in spring 2025.
L&W believes that these efforts should be coordinated and put skills at the forefront. A new strategy must address the PS1bn drop in investment in skills by the Government in England from 2010 to 2015, and the 26% decline in employer investment since 2005.
The report highlighted that graduates were more likely than non-graduates to move elsewhere in the country and that they tended to move where there were higher-paid jobs or more opportunities. The result is a brain-drain to London and other major cities in England, mainly the south. This spiraling effect reinforces itself.
