Adult learning has improved but is worst for those with fewest skills to start with according to a report out today.

The Adult Learning Inspectorate annual report says that the proportion of companies offering poor training had fallen from 60% to 34% in two years.

However the report said that those with fewest skills were getting the worst deal.

Echoing comments made by Chancellor Gordon Brown and the CBI earlier this month, David Sherlock, chief inspector of adult learning, said that those with the fewest skills needed to be targeted.

"All the evidence now shows that British businesses are increasingly moving their unskilled work overseas and that the market for workers with low skills is rapidly diminishing in the UK. Adult learning urgently needs to make a difference here," he said.

"It tends to be assumed that the acquisition of skills has to happen in schools and universities.

"Of course this is partly true, but at any one time over five million adults in England are improving their skills outside those areas - at a cost to the taxpayer of £4bn. It's time this investment was recognised and valued."

Mr Sherlock also paid tribute to course providers for showing such a huge improvement over two years. "They have invested their belief, their efforts and their money in driving through the changes pin pointed by ALI," he said.

The ALI's report is based on more than 700 individual inspections.