21. The country's current learning 'scoreboard' shows strengths, but also some serious weaknesses. A great strength is our universities which educate to degree and postgraduate level and set world-class standards. The UK is second only to the USA in the number of major scientific prizes awarded in the last five years. The proportion of graduates in the working population has almost doubled over a decade. Our research excellence is valued by many companies which choose to base their research capacity in the UK. A further strength is the existing commitment among many people to gaining qualifications. Fourteen million people have National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 2 (equivalent to five or more higher grade GCSEs).

22. Our weakness lies in our performance in basic and intermediate skills. Almost 30 per cent of young people fail to reach NVQ level 2 by the age of 19. Seven million adults have no formal qualifications at all; 21 million adults have not reached level 3 (equivalent to 2 A levels), and more than one in five of all adults have poor literacy and numeracy skills. As the chart below shows, we lag behind France, Germany, the USA and Singapore in the proportion of our workforce qualified to level 3. In the case of graduates, even though we have a high number, we need to encourage more of our highly qualified people to update their skills through continuing professional development.

Proportion of the working population qualified to a given level

basic (level 2 but not level 3 or above)

intermediate (level 3 but not level 4 or above)

advanced (level 4 and above)

source: Skills Audit 1996