Growing by degrees? High skilled workers in Liverpool

Author: Chris Webber & Kieran Larkin
Date: 30/10/2009

Liverpool is part of the Centre for Cities' Partner City research programme. The programme works closely with a small group of cities to inform economic development strategies and improve economic performance. 

A city's stock of high skilled workers is one of the key determinants of its economic performance. This report focuses on high skilled workers in Liverpool. It answers two questions:

• How can Liverpool attract and retain more graduates?
• What more can partners in Liverpool do to ensure that its graduates meet the needs of priority business sectors?

Recommendations

• Drop plans to introduce a graduate retention target and stay focused on increasing the share of the city region's adult population educated to degree level

• Strengthen educational attainment in schools - particularly in maths and English - to improve the supply of local talent

• Use Liverpool's Knowledge Economy Group to design and coordinate policies that help boost demand for high skilled workers across the city region

• Support the focus on employability skills at Liverpool universities by improving business awareness of existing programmes

• Redesign computer games courses to gain industry accreditation and strengthen practical skills training on science courses