In the 1970s, he said, a majority of people in the jobs market had no qualifications.
In most states, the job requires no qualifications, no training, no background check, and no licence of any sort.
He failed his 11-plus, left school with no qualifications, and joined the Merchant Navy for four years "to see the world".
Mr Andrews said there had been progress, with fewer young people leaving school with no qualifications, but there was more to do.
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White youngsters who think they can leave school with few or no qualifications and walk into a job are not wholly deluded.
Although Britain now produces plenty of graduates, it has a higher proportion of workers with poor skills or no qualifications than Germany.
He said a "whole range of pupils" enrolled on the course after leaving school - some with no qualifications and others with A-levels.
In 2011, 24% (338, 544) of residents aged 16 years and over had achieved Level 4 or higher qualifications, while 29% (416, 851) had no qualifications.
He laughs he has no qualifications, what are they playing at?
No qualifications are needed to become a PCSO - although applicants English should be "proficient" - and prospective officers may have to pass a fitness test.
Last week a report from the charity Barnardo's said they were written off by the education system, with nearly eight out of 10 gaining no qualifications.
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The Office for National Statistics' latest report on the differences between Wales and other regions of the UK shows that 12% of 16-to-24-year-olds in Wales have no qualifications.
Dr Corascendea Cathar, who has no medical qualifications, claims her "Dhaxem" healing can treat cancer.
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There are no formal qualifications for entering the field except a college degree.
No other qualifications were required, beyond a basic school education.
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The court heard the 57-year-old had fooled clients out of millions of pounds by presenting himself as a lawyer, despite having no legal qualifications and not being registered to work as an advocate in the UK or Italy.
Its dons were a Francophile who looked like a stage-Frenchman from a 1920s comedy and a Greek lady with no apparent qualifications save that she had been secretary to the former professor, who had fled two years earlier.
Edwin Drake had no obvious qualifications to run the Seneca Oil Company except for two: as a retired railroad conductor, he could travel by train with a free pass, and--in what is required for the head of any start-up--he was very persistent by nature, indeed downright stubborn.
He found that nearly two-thirds of incapacity benefit claimants had no skills or qualifications at all.
The hearing was told Mr Weir, who ran the mine in Borrowdale, near Keswick, had no night flying qualifications and died from multiple injuries.
It might sound like a tall order, but for the Florida girl with no formal business qualifications who now shapes rears internationally, it might not be impossible.
Everybody, no matter what their qualifications, they've got to reprove themselves at the trials.
From 2014 thousands of vocational qualifications will no longer count in school league tables at all.
Other than a presidential appointment, remarkably there are no background educational or professional qualifications to become a Commissioner.
While overt fraud is the purview of the government, for those practitioners who are truthful regarding their qualifications there is no role for the government to regulate the provider-patient relationship by requiring the involvement of a physician.
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The review said there were no checks on surgeons' qualifications in some parts of the private sector, an issue made worse by more than half of cosmetic surgery being performed by "fly in, fly out" doctors - surgeons based abroad who fly into the UK to perform operations and then fly back out again.
Without a personal file detailing their political background, profession, technical qualifications and seniority, no one can fit into the government plan.
He said the tables only gave points for A-levels, so the "equally challenging" vocational qualifications students might study got no points at all.
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