The north has a skill deficit in this area.

The whole issue of graduate skills deficits, of course, begs the question of the value of today's degree.

That compares with a countrywide manufacturing skills deficit believed to average at 41 per cent.

Skill deficits may lead to poor performance directly (failure to adequately learn the material) or indirectly (awareness of being ill-prepared causes anxiety that, in turn, leads to poor performance).

They also pointed to studies that revealed impaired theory of mind skill in alexithymia, neuroanatomical evidence pointing to a shared etiology and similar social skills deficits.