<<<<< Parts of Britain facing 'skills poverty'
By David Turner, Employment Correspondent
Parts of Britain are facing "catastrophic" levels of "skills poverty", according to a report by a consultancy that advises the government.
In some areas of severe industrial decline and high unemployment such as South Yorkshire, the Black Country and Merseyside more than a third of people of working age lack even the basic skills that would lift them out of low-skilled work, according to a report by Local Futures, the specialist in local economies.
Mark Hepworth, the head of Local Futures, said: "In these areas the skills are low so the quality of jobs is low. It's a vicious circle."
Top of the skills poverty league is Birmingham and Solihull, where more than 39 per cent of the working-age population have fewer than four GCSEs at C grade or above or the vocational equivalent.
More than a third of the working-age population is stuck below this level in parts of the north-west and the Midlands, but also in County Durham, west Wales and the Valleys, east London and Essex.
The report also finds that low skills is a problem throughout the country.
At least a fifth of the potential labour force has a low level of qualifications or none at all in every part of Britain, except for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Scotland, whose education system has often been praised relative to England's, in general scores quite well in the skills league.
Central London is the only part of Britain where more than half the potential labour force has a university degree or equivalent qualification, according to Local Futures' annual State of the Nation report. Bottom of the league is South Yorkshire, with a rate of 19 per cent.
The report suggested that in the north and the Midlands the graduate-hungry "knowledge economy" is "too weak to prevent a brain drain" of graduates to London and the south-east.
Mr Hepworth said: "Central London is the engine room of the knowledge economy, with its financial and business services, the civil service and research institutions."
Weekly earnings averaged above �600 in five London districts last year - with the City of London top at �913. But the London borough of Havering was at the bottom of the national league, with weekly earnings of �245.
The south and east of England dominate the list of areas showing the highest employment growth in the decade to 2001.
Two north-western districts, Barrow-in-Furness and Copeland, showed the fastest decline in employment, at above 10 per cent.
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Financial Times; Jul 24, 2003
Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England
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