Schooling Standards in England and Germany: Some Summary Comparisons Bearing on Economic Performance

‘One of the most long-standing problems in this country is our failure to our school-leavers adequately for work.’ (The Chancellor of the Exchequer in his budget March 1985) The way higher productivity depends on a workforce that is technically-skilled at all levels—from operators and foremen to senior engineers and directors of production—was examined on the basis of an interview-study of matched engineering firms in Britain and Germany in the last issue of this Review. The present article traces differences in workforce skills between these two countries to differences in preparation at school, particularly in mathematics and vocational education, and particularly for those in the lower half of the ability spectrum.