NATIONAL > There is a future which needs skills and skills need education
Published: Friday, 07 Jan, 2011
A couple of pieces on the radio last night and this morning looked into the UK economic future but from two different perspectives. The first on The World Tonight for last night, the 6th January considered whether there was any way in which the UK could compete with China and the other up and coming Asian economies. The conclusion was that, given a level playing field
A couple of pieces on the radio last night and this morning looked into the UK economic future but from two different perspectives. The first on The World Tonight for last night, the 6th January considered whether there was any way in which the UK could compete with China and the other up and coming Asian economies. The conclusion was that, given a level playing field (not a thing in which China has shown much interest to date) the rise of the East did not have to mean the fall of the West rather as, and this makes sense, the rise of the USA did not bring about the fall of Europe. The brash newcomer to any group always has the appearance of being more energetic than more established members but, in the context of the whole world economy climbing steadily upwards, there should be plenty of room for everybody to thrive as new components start to make their greater contribution to the whole.
The other piece, on this morning's Today programme, previewed a speech that David Cameron will make today about how the UK economy can start to grow and prosper from productive and profitable activities. For this purpose, the Government has identified a number of areas where the UK can build proper industries on either current and real success such as Pharmaceutical, Aerospace, Tourism or on sector leadership already established in industries of the future such as the diverse and vast Green Energy and the world changing Advanced Materials sectors. Such growth, of course, will be a very important component in the Government's plans to shift the economic balance away from the cost driven public sector to the profit driven private sector.
What the two pieces highlighted, though, was that, while there are tasks to be tackled, the future cannot be viewed as a black and white thing. The UK remains the best place for a number of industrial sectors and their success will bring many benefits: not only the take up of employment needs displaced from the public sector but also the reduction of the country's over reliance on banking and financial services and its susceptibility to their blackmailing ways of doing business. It all spells opportunity for investors but there is one cloud on the horizon and that is Britain's (or, more precisely, England's) education system. It's failing: failing to deliver equality of opportunity and, in this context, failing to deliver the levels of skills that will be needed if the UK is to succeed in the high tech sectors that David Cameron correctly identifies a our economic future. In truth, the most important minister in this government is not David Cameron or Nick Clegg, nor is it George Osbourne or Vince Cable: it is Michael Gove for if he fails, the whole project fails. He is challenged by a lot of vested interests deeply embedded in the educational establishment and parts of the media so he will need all government ministers to stand four square behind him as he tackles this government's version of the Trades Union challenge that faced Margaret Thatcher's Government. But, as in the early 1980s, the future prosperity of the country will stand or fall on Michael Gove's success.
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