Skills are not enough:

The report below gives an interesting global perspective on the increased competition our graduates will face. It raises fundamental questions as to what impact graduate globalisation will have on Governement policy for HE and our graduates.

"The globalisation of high skills. Within a decade there has been a doubling of university enrolments around the world, reaching close to 63million by 2005. This is leading to a massive increase in the global supply of highly educated workers, able to compete on prive as well as knowledge (Brown et al, 2008). China now has more people in higher education than the United states" (p.10)

"We are now facing the prospect of competing with increasing numbers of high skilled workers on significantly lower wage rates. Returns to education will not therefore provide the guarantee of higher income that the government is looking for to resolve issues of distributional justice."(p.26)

Example: "In an interview with a leading international law firm in the City of London we were told how they off-shored the preparatory work in the development of high profile cases to the Philippines, where lawyers who would cost £125,000 a year in London are paid a fraction of that price." (p.16)

The publication PRAXIS is the UK Commission for Employment and Skills' series of policy think pieces.

Brown, P., Ashton, D., Lauder, H (2010) Skills are not enough: the globallisation of knowledge and the future UK economy, PRAXIS No4, March 2010, UKCES (UK Commission for Employment and Skills.
http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/praxis-4
Food for thought?