Human Capital

Human capital refers to skills, experience, attitudes, aptitudes of the human input into production. Deficiencies in human capital can be a major barrier to raising productivity, per capita incomes and sustaining improved competitiveness.

Human capital is a measure of individuals’ skills, knowledge, abilities, social attributes, personalities and health attributes. These factors enable individuals to work, and therefore produce something of economic value.

Human capital in the UK economy can be improved by:

1. Sustained gains in average educational attainment – in the academic year ending 2015, 53.8% of pupils that left school in England achieved 5 or more GCSE A* to C grades, including Maths and English
2. Expanded access to and quality of in-work training and opportunities for life-long learning
3. Higher real incomes that allow people to consume more knowledge products including online courses
4. Inflow of migrants with above average skills & qualifications