Ambition 2020 - UK runs risk of an overskilled population

'Skills crisis' could soon by an erroneous phrase to describe the state of the relationship between jobs and skills in this country, according to Mike Campbell, director of research and policy at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

Speaking at the launch of its Ambition 2020 plan - which seeks to have the UK ranked in the top eight of 30 OECD countries for productivity, employment and equality within 11 years (it is currently 11th, 10th and 14th), Campbell said skills shortages are now "extremely low".

He said: "We could soon be asking ourselves whether we have too many highly skilled people. At the moment this country still has more highly skilled jobs than it does highly skilled people, but our supply of highly skilled people is now growing faster than the development of new highly skilled jobs by a factor of 4:1. This signals the fact we run a very real risk of overskilling the population unless the numbers of jobs and skills are balanced with each other."

To meet the Ambition 2020 target, 20 million new qualifications would need to be obtained - one for every second adult in the country. But Campbell denied this would cause an overskilling problem. "One in four adults are still not qualified to Level 2 (five GCSEs), and this places us 18th out of 20 European counties," he said.

Instead he called on businesses to keep pace with predicted upskilling, by creating new jobs. "We want a virtuous circle of all sides of the skills, labour force and economic market. We need more employers to create more highly skilled jobs," he said.

UKCES CEO Chris Humphries (pictured) said: "There need to be government programmes that ensure the strategies of businesses are as inspirational as they need to be." He added: "People tend to migrate to countries where they think their talents and skills will be recognised. Government departments need to work together to create a more integrated employment and skills agenda."

According to the Ambition 2020 report, one in 10 of all new jobs has been created in the past 10 years, with the number of jobs requiring Level 4 skills having increased by a half in the past 20 years.