Learning, skills and crime reduction

1. Learning, skills and crime reduction Paul Convery Director, Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion

2. Contradictions for young people • Aspiration to maturity at earlier ages • “adult” lifestyle pressure • exposure to risky behaviour • Achieving economic independence later • extended educational participation • later entry into labour market

3. Confusions for young people • Labour market complexity • more demanding employer requirements • less tenure and diminished security • Weakened family and community support • atypical family structures • weakened community and informal networks • family formation undermined by non-employment

4. 16-18s outside employment, training and education (LFS)

5. “NEET” characteristics

6. “NEET” characteristics Classed as “ILO” unemployed 75% of young men 52%, of young women (but a further 25% looking after family) Nearly 35,000 (18%) have a disability or health condition (21% of young men but only 14% of young women)

7. Skills polarisation • No qualifications down from 25% (1992) to 13% (1999) • 45% of workforce now have NVQ3+ (was 33% in 1992) – but no increase in those qualified to level 3 • about 30% are significantly over-educated • skilled people get even more trained: • 20% of degree qualified workers regularly receive employer funded training • compared with only 8% of those qualified to VQ2 and 3% with no formal qualifications

8. Wage premiums • Literacy - achievement at NVQ level 1 - 16% • Numeracy - achievement at NVQ level 1 - 26% • GCSEs - 21% over non-qualified • A levels - 17% over GCSEs • With a degree - 28% over A levels • Graduates - 66% over non qualified • Level 3 is threshold above which earnings exceed national average • unskilled earn 30% less than national average • Women aged 30-44 - premium of degree holders over level 3 is 110% - highest in the OECD

11. Employment rates

15. Attributes of the new affluency • Proportion of jobs requiring degrees risen at almost 1 percentage point each year • Upward trend in requirement for generic skills: computing, writing, problem-solving and professional communication skills • Extent and complexity of computer use rising: "fairly important, very important or essential" in two thirds of jobs - increasing by nearly 3 percentage points a year • Internet use: "fairly important, very important or essential" for more than 1 in 3 workers.

16. Skill gap characteristics • Basic computing skills • Advanced IT skills • Management skills • Other technical and practical skills • Communication skills • Customer handling • Team working • Problem solving • Literacy and numeracy (reported by 25% of lower/manual skill workplaces)

17. Main occupations with skill-shortage vacancies • craft and skilled trades (22% of the total); • associate professional occupations (17%); • sales occupations (13%); • personal service occupations (11%). • Main industries with skill-shortage vacancies: • craft-intensive construction (12% of the total) and manufacturing sectors (16%); and • two large service industries - finance (17%) and wholesale/retail (17%).

18. What needs to change? • Better delivery system • Partnership and collaboration • Learning from practice • Measurement of success

19. Internet www.cesi.org.uk/talks