In its annual report, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) reports it has made ‘significant progress’ with young and adult learners.
A record number of young people – 1.5 million – are in learning and the target for achieving a Level 2 qualification has been reached one year ahead of target – 69.8 per cent of 19 year-olds.
In addition, more adults than ever are achieving Level 3 communications and the target for recruitment of apprentices has been exceeded, with 176,900 starting in 2005/06.
Chairman Christopher Banks said: “These are very encouraging results for individuals, for businesses and for the economic success of the country.
“Of course, we still face a series of huge challenges. Despite record levels of young people in learning, Britain still has one of the OECD’s lowest rates of young people over 16 staying on in education. There are still 12 million adults in this country who lack basic number skills.”
The report, Leading Change, contains regional and local information to enable region by region and area by area analysis. These reflect the progress the LSC has made in relation to the different factors it faces across the country.
Leading Change also includes the employer focused initiatives the LSC has implemented in the last year, specifically the launch of Train to Gain.
The full report is available at: http://www.lsc.gov.uk/AnnualReport2006/
