Category Archives: skills shortage

From Unemployment to Skills Shortage

skills shortage

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The last five or so years have been blighted by the recession causing vast unemployment in the UK, but the tide has turned, it seems, recruitment is on the up and companies across the UK are doing well.  Many more people are now in employment so that the unemployment rate has come down to 7%.  However it seems that we do not have the right level of skills available to service growing demand as a quarter of vacancies remain unfilled, according to a report by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills http://www.ukces.org.uk . Apparently, we have gone from unemployment to skills shortage.

It seems that one in five jobs can not be filled due to a skills shortage which is it claimed will affect the current economic recovery.  Skills shortage vacancies are growing faster than other vacancies.

Employees with foreign language skills are in very short supply for French and German and now with more business being done in China there is a demand for Cantonese and Mandarin speakers.

So what could be the cause of the current skills shortage?  One main reason is a failure of companies to invest in training and development. Training and development is a cost and, when times are tough, it is the first thing to bite the bullet.  Therefore during the recession many companies did not invest.  However, it is short termism to cut the development of skills as skilled workers are the lifeblood of any organisation.  During tough times it is important to keep up succession planning, apprenticeships, graduate placements, traineeships, career development, personal development plans as part of appraisals and maintain a training and development strategy for new as well as existing workers.  These have all died a death in recent years and, according to the report, training available has remained on the same  level for the last ten years.

Apparently there is a skills gap with science, technology, engineering and maths.  The popularity of these subjects in school should be encouraged more than they are now, because it is in school that a skills shortage can start.  Other skills which are in short supply are nurses, HR professionals, chefs, mechanics, electricians and machine minders.   Whilst the government is aiming to curb immigration the UKBA publishes a list of government approved occupation shortages on Tier 2 of the Points-Based System http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/workingintheuk/shortageoccupationlistnov11.pdf

There is a difficulty in the UK to resource low skilled jobs.  Many UK workers will not undertake a great deal of of the low skilled jobs available.  To solve skills gaps employers are recruiting highly skilled workers for low skilled jobs which results in demotivated bored employees.

There is a great deal of media attention on the influx of eastern European workers who will gladly undertake for example vegetable picking in the fields of Lincolnshire and hospital cleaning, jobs which UK workers, it seems, will not touch with a barge pole.  Because these jobs are lowly paid, it is often more lucrative to remain on benefits than take a job, a situation that the government is looking at to ensure that work pays.  However, that will take time.  In the meantime the doors of the UK are now open to Bulgarians and Romanians who will probably make their way here on the promise of work that pays better than in their own countries.

In the meantime the UK needs to get its act together and start thinking about its long term ability to deal with the skills shortage.

 

 

What’s the Cause of the Skills Shortage in the UK?

Many companies I come across say how they are suffering from a skills shortage as often they can’t recruit the right calibre of employee.  These companies are in all industry sectors particularly manufacturing and engineering, industries for which this country was once great.
The skills shortage is impacting on the UK’s ability to grow and compete in a global economy and needs to change for the future of our country.  The demand for certain skills moves with the times and is dependent on constant change whether caused through technological change, economic shifts, global movements or ageing populations.  The UK must move with the times and anticipate change.  
So what could be the cause of the current skills shortage?
One view is that schools are not linked to the needs of businesses and educating students accordingly.  Over the years we have seen the erosion of vocational-based courses in favour of developing university-focused students so much so that we now have graduates who are unable to get a job because there is nothing to discern the differences between them apart other than the subject of their non-work focused degrees.  However, in schools one size does not fit all and many students have a vocational leaning, which is just not being met. 
On leaving school young people find there is no room for them in the world of work due to their lack of work-based skills.  It is often a struggle to create a worthwhile CV and those that do best have developed demonstrable skills through hobbies, Saturday jobs and volunteering.
Employers seem loathe to take on apprentices often being put off by strangling health and safety laws. 
On the other end of the age spectrum older workers also struggle due to employer prejudice and stereotyping  such as “ you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.  Interviewing panels can often be young twenty or thirty somethings who think anyone over 40 is past it.  Let them just wait till they reach 40 – will they still the same – I very much doubt it.
This discrimination in relation to age means that employees within the “golden” age range of 25-40 are much sought after.  They are recruited for their skills. 
However, once employed companies often withhold training and development opportunities.  They see training and development as a cost to the business, which when times are hard, they can ill afford.  Little do they realise that training and development will put them ahead of the game when the economy gets going again and anyway will keep them ticking over in the meantime adding to competitiveness.  Employees who do not feel valued and are not invested in will often leave creating an even bigger skills shortage for their ex-employer. 
For things to change the government, educational establishments and industry must all work together in partnership to improve the skills shortage in the UK.