How can we best prepare the workforce for the future labour market?
Every year, Edge hosts a session at Learning and Work Institute (L&W) Employment and Skills Convention. 2024’s event tackled key questions around upskilling the workforce. What strategies can effectively help us meet future labour market demands? Our panel of experts included Sam Selner (Director, IFF Research), Luke Bocock (Research Director, NFER), Robert Craig (COO, Skills Builder Partnership), and Kat Emms (Senior Education & Policy Researcher, Edge).
The current skills landscape
Sam Selner opened with an overview of key findings from the 2022 Employer Skills Survey – the first conducted since the pandemic – which involved over 70,000 employers. The survey highlighted a rise in vacancies due to skills shortages – primarily due to a lack of specialist skills and knowledge, but also a lack of soft skills like task prioritisation and time management. The proportion of employers reporting skills shortage vacancies rose from 6% in 2017 to 10% in 2022, Sam said, with 36% of vacancies now hard to fill due to skills shortages – up from 22-23% (2013-17). The construction, information and communication, and manufacturing sectors face the greatest challenges, while skilled trades, caring & leisure and professional occupations had the highest density of skill-shortage vacancies. 5.7% of current workforce have skills gaps (where existing workers lack the necessary skills to perform their roles proficiently). Therei s an urgent need for increased investment in training – despite skills concerns, only 60% of employers have provided or arranged employer training over the last 12 months, a further reduction from previous years.
Anticipating skills needs for 2035
Luke Bocock shared the latest from NFER’s Skills Imperative 2035 research programme, which addresses future skills shortages by forecasting the jobs and skills needed in the labour market in 2035. Global economic megatrends – especially automation and AI – will continue transforming the jobs available and the skills required to do them. As a result, some industries will see increases in their share of UK employment, while others will see a decline. The social care and leisure sectors are projected to grow, for in, while manufacturing will decline. NFER also projects substantial changes in occupational composition, with administrative and secretarial positions expected to drop significantly as automation takes over. NFER has identified six essential employment skills that will be especially important by 2035: collaboration, communication, creative thinking, information literacy, organising and prioritising work, and problem-solving. However, a survey of over 11,000 workers found that 13% currently exhibit substantial skills deficiencies, which may rise to 22% by 2035. But the survey also found that lower-level occupations often have underutilised skills, perhaps pointing to untapped skill sets. Luke called for more effective use of HR management practices to align skills with jobs, particularly in these lower-level occupations.
The growing role of degree apprenticeships
Finally, Edge’s Kat Emms offered one possible way forward: degree apprenticeships. Launched in England in 2015, degree apprenticeships offer learners an opportunity to study for a degree while working full-time, typically spending four days in the workplace and one day in off-the-job training. The model allows apprentices to ‘earn while they learn’ while graduating debt-free since there are no tuition fees. As Kat outlined, research indicates that degree apprenticeships enhance the relevance of classroom learningthrough employer engagement, leading apprentices to develop essential employability skills more effectively than undergraduates. She also explained that degree apprenticeship programmes can diversify the workforce, particularly in sectors like digital and engineering, which are traditionally male-dominated. For mature apprentices – who may not have had the opportunity to pursue higher education earlier in life – degree apprenticeships can also widen participation in HE.
While challenges remain – such as limited SME uptake and funding constraints in areas like nursing – Kat suggested that fixing these issues and supporting degree apprenticeships to become more flexible could be one beneficial way of addressing skills shortages in the future.One thing from the discussion was apparent – addressing the UK workforce skills gap requires a collaborative effort among employers, educators, and policymakers. By combining essential skills development with research into shortages and emerging jobs, the panel made it clear that even in the current climate, securing a more future-resilient workforce is not just a remote goal – it is entirely achievable.
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