Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
40%
1992
2000
2009
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Other
higher
quali-
cation
No
quali-
cation
GCE
'O' levels
or equiva-
lent
GCE
'A' levels
First
degree
CSE
grades 2-5,
Scotland
grades
4-5
Higher
degree
Teaching
quali-
cation
Figure 3.7
Educational attainment, 1992-2009. Proportion of a sample of 7179 British
adults endorsing selected educational qualifications in response to the question 'Which
of these is your highest qualification?'
Source
: Future Foundation
Figure 3.7 indicates significant increases in those completing further
and higher education. In 2009, 2.9 million school-leavers in England and
Wales went on to higher education, compared with 0.7 million in 1970.
Attainment in higher education is a key attribute of the modern family,
resulting in discerning consumers and the choices they make regarding
cultural experiences. As a consequence of higher participation rates in all
levels of education, structures in society are changing, especially as women
participate at a higher rate than men in higher education. As a consequence,
certain professions are becoming dominated by women. Penn (2008) terms
this 'wordy women'. For example, in the Church of England, more women
than men have been ordained as clergy since 2006. In that year, Church
statistics showed that 244 of the 478 clergy ordained were women and the
other 234 were men (Yeoman, 2008).
An affluent society and family spending
In the UK, household disposable income grew threefold in real terms
between the early 1950s and 2008, an annual growth rate of 2.5% per annum
(Yeoman, 2008), with tourism being a beneficiary of this growth as families
