UK’s Skills Gap / Traditional degrees will not fill it, says CBI

The UK risks failing to close its “chronic skills gaps” by continuing to focus teenagers on the university “default route”, say business leaders.

A growing demand for degree-level technical skills will not be met by traditional university courses alone, argues a CBI report.

Instead more young people should take shorter or part-time degrees and advanced apprenticeships, says the CBI.

Business Secretary Vince Cable welcomed the CBI’s analysis.

“I agree with the CBI. A credible alternative to university is needed to help young people get the skills the economy needs”, said Mr Cable.

‘Undersold’

The report, Tomorrow’s Growth, predicts that by 2020 nearly half of all employment will be in “highly-skilled roles”.

Meeting this challenge “rests on the extent to which we can widen gateways into skilled work and promote routes to higher skills that appeal to individuals for whom a degree may not be the best option”, it argues.

In particular the authors say more young people should be encouraged to take technical and vocational courses which they say have long been undersold and should have parity of esteem with academic routes.

The report calls for better careers advice from an early age, and an end to the “information asymmetry” which “blights the system”.

“What is now seen as the ‘default route’ of an undergraduate degree is not suitable for all, young people have different talents and learn in different ways.

“To become informed consumers, young people need access to better work inspiration from primary school on. We should aim to inspire but also be realistic, setting out the costs and likely return on the options open to young people, including the vocational options that have long been undersold.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via BBC News – Traditional degrees will not fill skills gap, says CBI.