UK employers warn of skills shortage

The UK’s economic growth could be threatened by a lack of sufficiently skilled workers, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

The organization’s annual Education and Skills survey, which was co-sponsored by Pearson, found that 68% of businesses expected their need for staff with higher levels of skills to increase, but 55% are concerned that the supply of skills will not keep up with their needs.

Demand for more highly skilled workers was found to be particularly strong in the engineering, science and technology, construction, and manufacturing sectors, which the CBI notes are “crucial to the rebalancing of the economy.”

The CBI and Pearson are calling for action from the British government to ensure the country’s supply of skills meets businesses’ future requirements.

Rod Bristow, President of Pearson’s UK business, commented that: “The government is right to be ambitious about apprenticeships. We need more higher-level apprenticeships in high-growth sectors like biotech, engineering, and technology, as well as traditional ones. But our further education sector, which provides the Higher National Diploma courses that deliver these technical skills, sits on the edge of a funding precipice and may suffer damage for years to come.”

Werner Eichhorst has written for IZA World of Labor about the importance of vocational training. He writes that: “If tailored to the needs of employers and the labor market, dual vocational education and structured on-the-job learning programs can smooth entry into the labor market for young people compared with an academic high school education alone.”

Robert Lerman, meanwhile, has written for us about the benefits to employers of investing in apprenticeships, arguing that: “By providing firms with information on economic returns, by helping them set up apprenticeships, and by funding off-site training, policymakers can promote the expansion of effective career training and increased worker earnings with only modest public expenditures.”

Read more on this story at BBC News. The CBI report can be found here.

Related articles:
Does vocational training help young people find a (good) job? by Werner Eichhorst
Do firms benefit from apprenticeship investments? by Robert Lerman