Productivity, Education and Training

Higher standards of schooling and of vocational training are now widely recognized as essential in Britain if benefits are to be gained from advanced technology, and if unemployment rates are to be reduced. The continuing development of automated production methods, combined with increasing competition from low-wage developing economies, is likely to reduce even further the scope for the employment of low skilled and inexperienced personnel in advanced economies. This book provides a realistic analysis of what needs to be done, based on visits over the past ten years by expert teams to matched samples of manufacturing plants in Britain and the European Continent, as well as to schools and vocational colleges. It explains why government policies need to move even further, and in which directions those policies should move.