UK plc is closing the employment door on workers with no qualifications, but welcomes those with computer skills, research has found.
A report published by the ESRC Research Centre on skills, knowledge and organisational performance, found that the number of jobs in the UK requiring no qualifications for entry has dropped from 38% in 1986 to 28% in 2006.
It also revealed a ‘convergence’ between the skills of men’s and women’s jobs. The number of jobs requiring degrees has increased in the past 20 years from 14% to 21% among men, but from 6% to 18% among women.
Moreover, computer skills are now an essential element in the workplace. Last year, computer skills were crucial to nearly half of all jobs against less than one-third of jobs in 1997.
Minister for lifelong learning, further and higher education, Bill Rammell, said: “The Leitch Review of Skills has set out the ambition to have world class skills by 2020. The government will shortly announce its plans for implementing Lord Leitch’s recommendations.
“All the evidence points to a growing need for skills for our competitiveness. Ever fewer jobs will require no qualifications in future,” he said.
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