Case Study 1: Sheffield’s Construction JOBMatch Programme

•The British economy has been performing well for the last decade, but there is an annual productivity gap of £30 billion between the English average and that of the industrial North (ONS, cited in Northern Way, 2007).•A recent government review has stated that the UK’s skills base remains “mediocre by international standards”, with seven million adults lacking functional numeracy skills and five million lacking functional literacy skills (HMT 2006).•The demise of vocational training and apprenticeships in favour of academic qualifications has resulted in “a serious lack of people with skills in the general trades” (Humphries, 2006, p 36).[...]