This report is part of a series of country projects within the OECD programme of work on “Building Skills for All”. The OECD team is grateful to the Department for Education for contributing both financial support and expertise throughout the project. The OECD team wishes to thank all the colleagues from the Department for Education who were involved in this project, especially the Basic Skills Policy Team, for their support and commitment and their help convening and organising the stakeholder meetings and the expert workshop.
Our warm thanks go to the many government and non-government representatives who generously shared their insights during the expert workshop and bilateral interviews with the OECD review team in London, Derby and Sheffield, and via written input. Almost 100 stakeholders participated in the various meetings and the workshop that took place during OECD missions. These stakeholders represented ministries, government agencies, subnational authorities, education and training institutions, businesses and business associations, unions and community associations, academia, civil society and other organisations. We are also grateful to Yngvild Ziener Nilsen and Astri Pestalozzi (Skills Norway), Monika Tröster (German Institute for Adult Education) and Anja Meierkord (OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs) for sharing international examples and insight on basic skills policies and their active participation during the expert meeting held in London.
The authors of this report are Shinyoung Jeon and Ben Game from the OECD Centre for Skills. Viktoria Kis, Anthony Mann and Montserrat Gomendio provided valuable inputs and guidance to the earlier version of the report. Edoardo Magalini, Aurélien Kaske and Stefano Piano also provided helpful support and research assistance. Andrew Bell as Acting Head of the centre and Marieke Vandeweyer as Head of Vocational Education and Training provided guidance, comments and supervision. Support throughout the project was received from Mark Pearson (Deputy Director) and Stefano Scarpetta (Director) from the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. The report benefitted from helpful comments provided by Glenda Quintini, Senior Economist (OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs) and Annabelle Mourougane, Senior Policy Analyst (OECD Economics Department).
Charity Kome and Jennifer Cannon (OECD Centre for Skills) provided invaluable support for logistics, report layout and design, and publication planning. Randall Holden provided proofreading and editorial support for an earlier version of the report.
While the report draws upon data and analysis from the OECD, English authorities and other published sources, any errors or misinterpretations remain the responsibility of the OECD team.