More than ever, what we learn is key to what we earn. In today’s economy, having the right skills is critical to getting and keeping a job, and to getting on in your career. Across the OECD, a person with a third level qualification can expect to earn about 50% more than someone without one. This ‘education premium’ is even larger in Ireland.
At the same time, the unemployment rate of those aged 25-64 is about 13 percentage points higher in Ireland for those who didn’t complete the Leaving Cert – one of the biggest such disparities in the OECD. As important as degrees and qualifications are the social and emotional skills necessary to thrive in modern society.
As I have written previously in these pages, investing in education and skills – together with ‘womenomics’, ‘more and better jobs’ and redistribution – are part of a ‘core four’ policy pillars of stronger, fairer Irish economy.
A solid education can be a great social leveller, but people from less well-off backgrounds face bigger barriers, financial and otherwise, in seizing its opportunity. Not only is the education and skills gap a key driver of inequality, but the effect can be self-reinforcing. So, while the distance between the rungs of the social ladder have grown, so social mobility has declined, individual potential has gone to waste through un-or-under-employment and productivity growth has lagged. All this means that society as whole ends up worse off.
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