Measuring adult skills: What can you do?

IN THE sprawling Siemens factory complex in Berlin, teenagers in blue overalls are learning how to assemble circuit boards, the first step in their three-year apprenticeships. Besides instruction in technology, robotics and other engineering skills, the young recruits-1,350 in the company's training centre at any given time-are drilled in literacy and numeracy. By the time they leave, they are expected to be able to summarise tasks, and how to solve them, in English as well as in German.As countries vie to improve their training and increase their productivity, the thoroughness of the Siemens approach is a model for many. At €100,000 ($135,000) per apprentice, it is a hefty investment. Norbert Giesen, a senior trainer, says that, because production methods have become more susceptible to innovation, the company now emphasises "soft" skills, such as how to build teams and divide tasks efficiently, which remain helpful even if processes change.

Such a...

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Manchester road named after Sir Alex Ferguson

A road near the Old Trafford football stadium is to be renamed after Fergie to honour the long-serving manager of Manchester United.
A road adjacent to English football club Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium is to be renamed Sir Alex Ferguson Way in honour of the club's previous manager, who retired in May after nearly 27 years at the helm.

Ferguson, who is now a director at the Premier League club, will be given the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Trafford at a formal ceremony on Monday

The 71-year-old Ferguson says "to have a part of Trafford carrying my name is truly humbling".

Another former Manchester United manager, the late Matt Busby, has a street named after him close to the stadium.
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No winner for Ibrahim African governance prize again

The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership has again not been awarded for a fourth time in five years.
The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership - the world's biggest individual prize - was not awarded for a fourth time in five years, it was announced on Monday.

At a press conference in London, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said that "after careful consideration" they had decided there would be no 2013 laureate.

The award, set up by Sudan-born telecoms tycoon Mo Ibrahim in 2007, carries a $5-million prize paid over 10 years and $200 000 annually for life from then on, with a further $200 000 per year available for 10 years for good causes backed by the winner.

The award goes to a democratically demonstrated exceptional leadership, served their mandated term and left office in the last three years.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has now awarded the annual prize only three times since it was established, plus two special awards given to South Africa's Nelson Mandela and South African former archbishop Desmond Tutu. - Sapa
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