Education and skills

The coronavirus pandemic, and the measures put in place to combat it, have changed almost everything about how people live their day-to-day lives. More than ever before, life today is being conducted behind the nation’s front doors.

Tuition fees from international students account for nearly a fifth of total income of the higher education sector. A big drop in international students would imperil university finances.

An important part of the UK policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to try to help ensure key workers with children have access to sufficient childcare. Children of key workers are allowed to continue attending school and childcare settings, and both schools and early years providers are working to ensure wraparound care outside of school hours. Non-working partners, or those working from home, are also expected to provide childcare for key workers in some families.

"Doing a degree on average adds significantly to earnings over a lifetime", Paul Johnson writes. But still, "we do not have an education and training system that provides...routes into good employment for enough young people."

In their manifestos, both the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats have promised to extend free school meals to more children. The Labour party would introduce free school meals for all children in primary schools, while the Liberal Democrats would offer them to all secondary-school pupils whose families are receiving universal credit as well. Meanwhile, in their manifesto the Conservative party promises to “maintain our commitment” to free school meals – which we interpret as a plan to keep policy as it is.

What are the main parties’ spending proposals for young people in further education and sixth forms, and for adult education? To what extent will they reverse the cuts we’ve seen to date?

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto, published today, puts childcare front and centre. The party is promising to spend – on its own costing - £13 billion on free childcare in 2024 (plus another £1 billion on Sure Start children’s centres). That’s almost £12 billion of free childcare spending in today’s prices – and a far sight more than the £3.7 billion we spend on free childcare in England today.

Girls are aware of the benefits of STEM careers, but fear they are male-dominated.

The British economy is going to face a number of big issues over the next fifty years. Whether it is reforming the tax and benefit system, managing an ageing population, or preparing for the workplace of the future, there are plenty of challenges and opportunities ahead.

Our new research shows that company owner-managers respond to changes in income taxes by adjusting how and when they take money out of their company and not by changing the amount of income they create or how much investment they do.