Too many Chiefs, too few Indians; why UK Plc has a skills issue

Britain's education system is not fit to meet the changing needs of industry and as a result skills shortages and unemployment seem set to remain endemic issues for UK Plc.

This is the stark warning of a joint study between newspaper The Telegraph and think tank The Work Foundation which claims to have mapped the current state of the labour market and forecasts where future jobs could come from in the next decade.

Unless the UK's schooling system is better aligned to match future growth industries, the country's unemployment problems and skills shortages will "intensify," it claims.

The problem isn't so much a lack of boffins but the medium to lower skills needed to put these new technologies into practice. So not so much the designer of the new solar panel as the person in the blue boiler suit who needs to bolt it on, as it were.

The analysis focuses on four key sectors capable of substantial jobs growth over the next decade: low carbon, health care, digital, and creative and business services. It claims that "even in sectors more traditionally touted by the Government as 'job creators' of the future," such as renewable or Green, employers say they just aren't seeing the kind of candidates they need coming through their doors.

The report says on the one hand that substantial numbers of highly skilled and specialist jobs will come eventually, boosting national standings in such key areas as stem-cell research and electric cars.

But it's entry and intermediate levels that the country needs to focus on, arguing the country will need an 'army' of vocationally trained workers to service customers and fix and maintain any new technologies.

In the past 20 years, it seems, there has been a strong increase in the number of workers holding qualifications across all levels, but a slower growth in the number of jobs demanding those qualifications. In effect, we've become too top-heavy; 40% of workers hold qualifications above the entry level needed for the job. This skills "under-utilisation" is especially prevalent among low-skilled sectors, says the group, now part of the University of Lancaster, causing several problems so we are in danger of a workforce of actually over-skilled and which having gone through costly and lengthy training is being denied the chance of reaching their full potential.

Employers may end up relying more on migrant workers to plug gaps.

There is a clear parallel with ICT, where there is no convincing entry-level apprentice structure.

The study also notes that employers remain concerned over the lack of 'soft skills' in all job-seekers, such as team working, communication and customer service, finding these have been neglected in favour of straight course content.

In health care, it adds, the ageing population will boost demand for innovative models for care provision across the NHS and private clinics.

Science, technical, engineering and maths skills will become increasingly important, but it is clear that so too will a range of softer skills designed to boost creativity and innovation.

The report says universities must work closer with businesses, especially in the industries of the future, so as to better map out the skills needed and "take joint responsibility for solving the current mismatch to prevent a future jobs crisis".

Source Public Technology