TUC calls on government to bolster basic skills
Lack of basic skills among the workforce is costing £10 billion a year in lost productivity, Trades Union Congress general secretary John Monks claimed today. One in three workers did not have basic qualifications and one in five had problems with literacy and numeracy, he said, as he called on the government to help firms provide training for their employees.
Top marks for Edexcel's incorrect question
Students who took an AS-level maths paper that included a supposedly impossible question answered that one better than any other in the exam, Edexcel, the board responsible said today. Almost 50 per cent of candidates scored 13 out of a maximum possible 14 marks even though the question contained a "proofing error".
University of Toronto settles job offer wrangle
British pharmocologist David Healy has settled a legal dispute with the University of Toronto over a claim that pressure from pharmaceutical companies led to withdrawal of a job offer at the university's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The university has assured Dr Healy, a critic of the drug Prozac, that drug companies play no role in the decision, and has appointed him a visiting professor for three years. Dr Healy has dropped his law suit against the university.