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Mind the Skills Gap

Mind the Skills Gap: Is the UK losing competitive advantage through a lack of skilled workers?

Date: Sunday 28th September, 18.00 - 19.00

Location: Hall 10A, ICC

Speakers: John Hayes MP John Stone, Chief Executive, The Learning and Skills Network Professor Dutta, Birmingham University Janette Faherty, Chief Executive, AVANTA

Chair: Ian Mulheirn, SMF

Skills are one of the key building blocks for economic growth and prosperity and a major component in combating social exclusion and achieving greater social mobility. The attainment of skills and their effective use are widely seen as key policy goals for the UK government and they matter even more in the new global economy that is emerging around us.

But skills have long been one of the UK’s Achilles heels. The UK is ranked in the bottom half of the OECD league table for skills, with around one third of adults lacking a good school leaving qualification, more than double the proportion in the US, Canada and Sweden.

The government has developed many policies and initiatives to overcome the continuing skills gap with the reintroduction of apprenticeships, a reorganisation of the 14-19 education provision, more funding for adult skills development and the Leitch Review, however, the overall trend is set to continue. The UK, based on current projections, will still only achieve the proportion of high skilled workers the US and Canada have today by 2020.

The Leitch Review has shifted the focus toward more employer-led skills, a move which has attracted both agreement and criticism. In 2006, the CBI’s Employment Trends Survey suggested that a majority of employers find school leavers lacking in vital skills such as the ability to self manage, work with others and solve problems.

In January 2008 the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills also published its paper Ready for Work, Skilled for Work: Unlocking Britain’s Talent. The document set out how the government plans to develop an employer-led employment and skills partnership for the future. In seeking to make in-work training more attractive to employers, the government plans to make state training support more flexible.

Questions for debate:

• Is the UK losing competitive advantage through a lack of skilled workers?
• Which skills is the current workforce lacking?
• Will involving business in the skills agenda solve the current crisis? How involved should business be in shaping qualifications?
• Do the recent DIUS proposals in Ready to work, Skilled for work go far enough to allow employers to lead the skills agenda?
• Is Train to Gain an effective brokerage service to facilitate Lord Leitch’s vision of demand-led training?
• Should the UK be contributing to a ‘skilled Europe’ by providing education and training for migrant workers? What knock-on economic benefits might the UK draw from this?
• Should ‘soft skills’ (teamwork, communication etc) be taught in schools? What benefits, if any, would this bring to employers and employees?