The UK’s skills base has long lagged that of comparator countries and over the last decade the rate of improvement in the UK’s skills base has stalled. This is the result of cuts in public funding for adult skills, alongside falling employer investment in skills.

Our new report shows that as a result the UK is likely to fall further back in the international league tables by 2030. The UK is poised to:

• Fall from 4^th to 6^th of the G7 countries for low skills;
• Remain 5^th for intermediate qualifications; and
• Remain 4^th for higher qualifications

We have set out a higher ambition for the UK which would involve making sure more people have functional literacy and numeracy and intermediate qualifications. This would boost our economy by £20 billion per year and help another 200k people into work. It would require extra investment of £1.9 billion per year and reversing the falls in the number of adults improving their skills each year seen since 2010.