Prosperity for all in the global economy. World Class Skills: the Leitch Review (November 2005)

In 2004 the Government commissioned an independent review of the UK's long term skills needs. The final report identified the UK’s optimal skills mix for 2020 to maximise:

• economic growth
• productivity
• social justice

The report recommends that the UK commit to becoming a world leader in skills by 2020, benchmarked against the upper quartile of the OECD. This means doubling attainment at most levels of skill. Responsibility for achieving this is to be shared between Government, employers and individuals:

As a result of low skills, the UK risks increasing inequality, deprivation … The best form of welfare is to ensure that people can adapt to change. … Skills are now increasingly the key lever.  The principles through which the government seeks to achieve a better skilled UK population are: shared responsibility (employers, individuals and the government); focus on economically valuable skills; demand-led skills; adapt and respond; build on existing structures. (Leitch Report executive summary, 2006)

Implementation of the report’s recommendations has had significant consequences for the shape of and subsidy for all aspects of public sector education and training post-14, including languages.  One aspect of this is the recording measuring of achievement (follow the link for information about recording achievement using the adult European Languages Portfolio).

Other than Functional Skills (Maths, Literacy, ESOL, ICT), no individual disciplines are mentioned in the report. 

If the demand-led model is accepted, convincing arguments have yet to be made to establish languages as economically valuable skills and to compensate for latent demand among employers with languages needs. While this remains the case, public subsidy for language learning post-19 will not be a priority.