Qualifications, Basic Skills and Accelerating Social Exclusion

A manifestation of social exclusion is difficulty in gaining and retaining employment. In the modern labour market, employability is said to be bound up with the possession of human capital in the form of skills and qualifications. This paper compares the early labour market experiences of two cohorts born in 1958 and 1970 respectively (National Child Development Study-NCDS, and 1970 British Cohort Study-BCS70). We demonstrate that for the younger cohort, unemployment rates at different ages were consistently higher for those without qualifications than for the older cohort. Logistic regression analysis, using extended experience of unemployment as the outcome variable, shows heightened significance for possession of qualifications and numeracy skills as protection against unemployment. It is concluded that those without these attributes are likely to experience increasing difficulty in obtaining and retaining employment. Across the generations, the process of social exclusion is accelerating.