Levelling up by numbers

Some 42% of the public understood what levelling up meant. But this varied in different nations, with people in Wales and Scotland reporting the lowest understanding: 31% and 29% respectively.

Amazon estimates that some 11.6m Britons require digital skills training to bring them up to speed

Education

The think tank ResPublica has some useful background on skills inequalities in the UK. Its research shows that:

The UK still has nearly 6.5m adults (or 15.4% of the adult population) who are not qualified above level 2 (i.e. GCSE).

There are stark geographic disparities. For example, the proportion of people without any formal qualification in Richmond Park is 1%. In Dudley North it is 20%.

However, there are also disparities within regions. In Sheffield Hallam, 72% of adults are educated to at least level 4. In nearby Brightside and Hillsborough the figure falls to 33%.

Where are the skills gaps?

It is estimated that an additional 186,000 skilled engineers a year are needed until 2024 to plug the skills gap, with 20% of the current workforce expected to retire by 2026.

In August 2021, a study showed that 50% of engineering firms find it difficult to recruit and retain staff with the skills and knowledge necessary for the job.

The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills gap costs the UK around £1.5bn a year. There is a shortfall of 173,000 STEM-sector workers, with about 10 unfilled roles per business.