ESRC SEMINAR SERIES: HOW TO MOTIVATE DE- MOTIVATED 14-16 YEAR OLDS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WORK-RELATED EDUCATION AND TRAINING. Summary of Seminar 2 Held on February 14 on Comparative Perspectives

• The growing mismatch between skills and supply in a changing world. • By 2020, manufacturing will only occupy 10-20% of the workforce. • In the UK and elsewhere, meanwhile, the high skills sector is growing . • Participation in lifelong learning (LLL) is very variable; in the UK about half participate, but these tend to be the better educated or trained. • Unemployment and participation in LLL are highest amongst those who achieve fewest qualifications at school – ‘what we do not get right in schools leads to lifelong disadvantage’. • Minorities feel increasingly left out of rising wealth creation in industrialised countries (but is this always the case?).