Are Basic Skills Becoming More Important in Employability?
Lack of basic skills especially reading- is the key ingredient of a poor educational career leading to lack of qualifications. Therefore the changing role of qualifications in employment gives a good indication of the changing significance of basic skills as well. The increasing role of qualifications in gaining access to and retaining employment is demonstrated by comparing those with qualifications and those without them in the two cohorts in terms of employment status at different ages between 17 and 21 (Figures 2a to 2d). Restricting the analysis to cohort members who left school at the minimum age of 16, we find very little difference in the employment levels in both cohorts between those who gained good examination results (top 25%). In relation to those with no qualifications, there is a striking gap. The proportions in employment in the 1958 cohort were much the same as for those with qualifications, but for those without qualifications in the 1990 cohort, the proportions in em
