A new skills survey has found that adults in England are performing poorly in ICT skills competence compared to other countries.

Countries including Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Austria, Korea and the Netherlands all outperformed England with greater mean score rankings in the survey.

The report revealed that men continued to outperform women, with this trend being seen internationally, and that the survey might have unfairly represented England due to the high participation of older age groups in the study.

The report stated: “Although the average score for problem solving in technology-rich environments was lower than the OECD average, this must be seen in the context of the far higher participation in this domain compared with other countries, which was particularly marked among the older age groups”.

The report added that the: “majority of the population in England now has access to ICT and this new domain recognises its increasing importance in all aspects of people’s lives and its implication for future national policy and planning.”

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