And there are direct economic consequences of high and low performing education systems, the study says, particularly in a globalised, skill-based economy.
Neil Carberry, CBI director for employment and skills, said: "In a globalised economy skilled migrants are important to addressing UK skills shortages and attracting investment.
As EU trade commissioner since 2004 Mandelson had also learned a good deal about how the most advanced EU economies, as well as emerging giants like China, deploy the tools of government to nurture the new businesses and skills the globalised world market would be needing.
Leading a nation in a globalised world is a balancing act that requires skill and luck and a citizenry that recognises the limits of the possible.
Anyone in the West who does not have real skills that are useful in the new globalised world should be very afraid.
Cook (2007) argues that "translation has always been a useful skill, but in today's multicultural societies and globalised world it is more so than ever" (p. 398).
Institutions are also increasingly stressing the idea that lawyers will develop their skills throughout their career, that in a fast-changing increasingly globalised world education and training is something that will continue throughout a legal career.
Equip students with the essential skills, knowledge and capabilities to thrive and compete in a globalised world and information rich workplaces of the current century.
And when they do attend, many of them – particularly those from the poorest and most marginalised households and communities – fail to complete their studies or else finish with insufficient skills, especially in those high-level competencies increasingly required by the modern globalised economy.
Last year the Harvard Business Review linked online game-playing to leadership ability, pointing out that multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest are good at developing skills such as "risk-taking, speed and fluidity" that businesses need in a globalised digital workplace.
Expansion driven by fluctuating prices of primary commodities "cannot guarantee sustainable growth in an increasingly open, globalised economy", it says, noting that even those countries that have managed to diversify into low-skill manufactures face increasingly fierce global competition.
