3.1 In the Learning Age, equipping people with the right knowledge and skills will be crucial to maintaining high and sustainable levels of employment and price stability. It will also improve productivity. This Chapter looks at how learning in the workplace needs to be transformed to achieve this.

3.2 Many leading employers educate and train their workforce to the standards of their best competitors. Others - especially in smaller firms - carry out little training. In 1993 the total investment in training by employers of 10 or more people was £10.6 billion. The vast majority of employers provide some training to their workforce, but this investment is unevenly spread and variable in quality. Younger employees and those who already have good educational qualifications receive more training. People with degrees are over six times more likely to be trained than people with no qualifications. For people working in very small firms, the prospect of their receiving training is substantially less.