Spotlight on educating for the modern world

The annual CBI/Pearson survey is the leading pulse-check on what business thinks about a range of education and skills issues. Educating for the Modern World pulls together a range of business views on pressing issues affecting our education and skills landscape, such as apprenticeships and technical education, school priorities and lifelong learning.

Respondents were drawn from all sectors of the economy.

Why should education and skills matter?

Education and skills go straight to the heart of the UK's competitiveness and productivity. Productivity has flat lined since 2008, growing at just 1% a year, causing the UK to fall behind the global competition. If our firms are going to address this problem and compete both domestically and on the world stage into the long-term, it is essential that employees are equipped with the necessary skills and expertise.

Key sector findings from the survey:

• Demand for higher skills rise as skills gap grows
• Links between business and education remain strong, but progress has stalled
• Technical education is highly valued but in urgent need of improvement
• There is an increasing urgency to re-skill the existing workforce and instil a culture of lifelong learning