Economies that succeed will be those that can raise skill levels most efficiently

Unskilled workers

If there is one business opportunity that could build prosperity and improve lives across the globe, it would surely be to raise the education and skill levels of those who currently lack them.

A certain amount of low-skilled labour will always be needed to clean offices and homes, pick crops, serve in shops and manufacture simple goods.

But as economies become technologically more complex, those that succeed will inevitably be those that can raise skill levels most effectively.

The task is daunting. According to the International Labour Organisation, China rates just 4 per cent of its workforce as highly qualified. Only 36 per cent of workers have a lower secondary-school qualification. The remaining 60 per cent have few or no skills. In India half of the country’s population over the age of 25 has had no education and an additional third has at best primary schooling. Four out of five new entrants to the workforce have never had any opportunity for skills training.

Even in developed countries, where the low-skilled are a minority, they have been, along with young people, hardest hit by the financial crisis. According to the OECD club of mostly rich nations, low-skilled employment has declined by five percentage points more than overall employment since the crisis began.

That does not mean we should despair. Unesco says average years of schooling for 15-24-year-olds in developing countries rose from 3.15 in 1950 to more than 8.5 in 2010 and average years of schooling for 15-24-year-olds in industrialised countries rose from almost seven years to more than 10.

Though a slow process the ILO says what is needed is better matching of supply to demand for skills, helping workers and enterprises adjust to change, and anticipating future skills needed.

Brian Groom