This report projects Northern Ireland's skills base through to 2030 and compares this to a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The report shows that on current trends Northern Ireland will continue to lag many other countries on a number of measures of learning and skills in 2030. These shortfalls can be particularly seen in basic skills like literacy and numeracy, higher education, and the proportion of people qualified to at least level 2. The report argues for Northern Ireland to set a higher ambition for skills, benchmarked against other countries. It makes recommendations for delivering this in practice, including building learning into other policy areas like health and developing clear learning pathways. This report makes the case for a higher ambition to address these skill deficits and improve Northern Ireland's prospects into 2030. Five policy recommendations are made in order to achieve this aim: (1) Build in learning across policy areas; (2) Northern Ireland should set a higher ambition; (3) There should be greater investment in learning and skills; (4) Promote a partnership approach; and (5) Monitor progress. While not a universal panacea, skills can help to increase economic growth by raising productivity and employment and thus increase living standards and the resources available for public services. They can also help to tackle issues of social inclusion by reducing inequality, helping people to adapt to the digital revolution, supporting health, wellbeing and community engagement and bringing people together across social divides. [This research was commissioned by Open College Network Northern Ireland (OCN NI).]