Aligning the skills system with employer demand
•Download as PPT, PDF•
0 likes•533 views
The document outlines a vision for reforming the UK's skills system to better align with employer demand and priorities. It argues the current system is overly complex, subject to constant change, and lacks employer and employee voice. The reformed system would see employers take ownership of skills through industrial partnerships to create job opportunities and growth aligned with strategic priorities. This is needed due to skills shortages, underuse of existing skills, and limited work-based training pathways restricting competitiveness and investment. The document calls for employers to lead on skills, workplace productivity to drive prosperity, and stronger connections between education and employers to prepare people for work.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Aligning the skills system with employer demand
Similar to Aligning the skills system with employer demand (20)
More from OECD CFE
More from OECD CFE (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Aligning the skills system with employer demand
- 1. Aligning the skills system with employer demand UK Commission for Employment and Skills Scott Johnson
- 2. Achieving employer leadership? Our vision for the system Froma centrally-driven system that’s overly complex, subject to constant structural change, and where employer and employee voice is crowded out. To employer ownership of skills through industrial partnerships, creating ladders of opportunity, innovation and growth aligned with industrial strategy priorities and local action. Acute skills shortages combined with poor use of the skills we have, alongside limited work based routes to higher-middle skill jobs - constraining competi- tiveness and investment. Stumbling productivity, depressed wage growth and difficult progression routes for those in low-skilled jobs, exacerbated by a decline in middle level jobs. Declining opportunities for combining study and work, with limited pathways into work for young people and few opportunities to gain real work experience. Employers should lead on skills and government should let them. Workplace productivity should be recognised as the route to prosperity Earning and learning should be the gold standrad for vocational pathways Education and employers should be better connected to prepare people for work. Success should be measured by a wider set of outcomes not just educational attainment
- 4. From principle to action Industrial partnerships Connection with education Workplace productivity
- 5. Thank you E: info@ukces.org.uk W: www.gov.uk/ukces @ukces
- 6. Thank you E: info@ukces.org.uk W: www.gov.uk/ukces @ukces
Editor's Notes
- Thank you for inviting me to this important international conference where we are debating what’s important from our country experiences to building effective skills strategies and ensuring they are effectively delivered nationally and locally. This is an issue that touches the very heart of the organisations I represent and what I do daily in one way or another: First in terms of my own business, I am the CEO of Chas Smith Group Ltd, which is a SME in the construction sector. Here it is absolutely essential to the success of my business that I have the most capable and highly skilled workforce and Second in my role as a Commissioner at the UKCES. Since its establishment in 2008, the UKCES has been working with industry leaders and government to improve the operation of the skills and employment system across the UK to improve the benefits for businesses, individual people and the economy at large. In particular, the Commission, and its 28 Commissioners, believe that success of the UK system, and wider economy, and the route to sustainable long term economic growth, depends on the action of business, and building strong employer leadership and collective action to shape investment. I will therefore be drawing on insights from our work in what I say today. I have been asked to give my impressions, drawing on my UK experience, of what we are doing to improve the skills system and in particular to ensure the skills provision/training offered is more effectively aligned with business/employer needs. In other words, how do we ensure the system adapts to labour market changes and provides people with high quality skills that enable them to get in and on in the labour market and to progress through their working lives. There are 2 parts to what I am going to say: First one or two quick words about the skills challenges the UK faces and why having an agile responsive system is important. Second one or two highlights of the important things that are being done to improve our system and that it is responding to employers needs/tackling this challenges
- So what are the challenges? The UK economy is on the mend. After one of the most challenging recessions in living memory we are now seeing steady recovery in growth and employment, but major long term challenges remain. Reversing the collapse in productivity – how much the UK economy produces per hour worked - is now the number one challenge facing the UK. The recovery has been jobs rich but pay poor, and the knock-on consequences on social mobility and living standards are all too visible. Businesses can turn this around by unlocking the potential of people to drive performance and productivity. Skills play a critical part; they have become the global currency of the 21st century. Without proper investment in skills, people struggle to find employment, business opportunity does not translate into business growth and the UK will not compete to its full potential in the global economy. Earlier this year we set out an analysis of the deep-rooted skills and employment challenges using the metaphor of rungs on the career ‘ladder’: Getting in: For young people, securing that first foothold into a good career is a lot harder than it used to be. Youth unemployment is falling but the youth unemployment rate is still four times the size of the adult unemployment rate. This is a structural problem – it reflects a decline in entry level jobs in the industries where young people traditionally find work. Young people are in a catch 22 – two thirds of employers say young people need work experience to get a job but there are fewer and fewer opportunities for young people to combine work with learning. Getting on: At the middle of the ladder, the ‘hourglass economy’ means that prospects are good for those at the top. But the decline of ‘middle skill’ jobs means that there is greater competition for those at the bottom and fewer opportunities to get on and move up. The recovery has been jobs rich but pay poor – too money people are cycling between low pay and no pay and over 5 million people in Britain work in low-paid jobs Moving up: At the top of the ladder we have a conundrum where in certain sections of the economy, businesses face critical technical and managerial skills shortages that are threatening future growth – for example manufacturing and engineering. At the same time, half of UK employers report having staff with skills and qualifications that they don’t use. By 2020, nearly half of the workforce will be qualified to degree level and above - the challenge is for businesses to absorb those skills – to innovate and turn potential into productivity and offer fulfilling and productive work – the real route to pay and progression. So what are we doing about it? There are a range of reforms underway within the skills system, and UKCES has provided commentary on these various developments. Later this month we will be publishing a policy statement that will suggest changes that need to be made by government, employers and learning providers to address the challenges I’ve just outlined. This statement is called ‘Growth through People’. This statement builds on our previous work and our substantial evidence base, reflecting what we know works and what we see that’s showing promise to set out a long term direction of travel for our skills system. We have identified five priorities which we believe are essential to improving our system and ensuring moving forward our system better serves business needs and achieve sustainable growth through people. These are presented on the right side of this diagram. As time is short I will focus on some key proposals for the UK Commission, particularly around employer leadership.
- These challenges are not new and there is no easy win. What’s more, they vary by sector, local area and business size. We think there are a series of key priorities which need to underpin the long term direction of the UK employment and skills system to create more and better opportunities for people and businesses. One of these is the need for greater employer leadership and collaboration on skills. UKCES has consistently argued that strong employer leadership is the key to tackling skills and productivity challenges. This means employers, with their employees, taking greater responsibility for developing the skills and jobs for future competitiveness. Industry-wide collaboration is vital to building these skills. Employers, working collaboratively with each other and with their employees and trade unions, should take greater leadership and responsibility for raising the bar on skills at the sector and local level. Government should commit to supporting employer-led partnerships on skills as a central part of long term growth plans and as a way of aligning public and private resources - recognising that they take time and need stability to grow. Our vision of Employer Ownership is underpinned by 5 principles: Employer ownership and responsibility drives jobs and growth. Creating the conditions that encourage the best employers to step up and work with their employees, trade unions, colleges and training providers to take end to end responsibility for workforce development in their industry will drive ambition, quality and better utilisation of skills. Customer focused and outcome driven ensures that businesses and people are at the heart of how the skills system operates. Designing services with a relentless focus on customers will create a responsive system that uses outcomes as the measure of success - more and better jobs for people and jobs better done for business. Alignment of strategy and investment leverages more and better outcomes. Routing the public contribution through the employer will create a single market for skills where supply responds to genuine demand and public investment leverages greater private investment. Simple and transparent systems engage customers. Developing accessible and simple structures will give customers confidence to engage with the skills system and transparent public investment enables employers and employees to value government’s contribution to developing people. Collaboration delivers relevant skills for jobs and growth. Incentivising greater collaboration between employers, unions, colleges/training providers and business networks will deliver higher quality vocational learning. Through such collaboration we are better able to reach and engage with small and medium enterprises. Colleges become key stakeholders within local economies, and teaching and learning is a core driver of local growth and prosperity. EO from the SME perspective (lessons/observations from your perspective……?)
- In practice, these principles translate into a variety of strong employer action on the ground. Industrial Partnerships Industrial strategy in its various guises across the UK is proving a strong starting point. There has been real progress in government and businesses working together on a long term growth plan that includes skills and employment policy. As a result of pilot projects where funding was routes to employers, partnerships are now in place across eight sectors ranging from the creative industries to automotive to science. For example, through the Energy and Efficiency Industrial Partnership, led by National Grid, employers in the power and utilities sector are working together for the first time with their supply chains to tackle issues of energy demand and job creation. The Partnership has received £33 million of government investment, which has been matched by £82 million of employer investment. Connecting business with education To create a workforce with the right skills and experience, far greater connectivity is needed between the education system and the world of work – at every level. This means businesses that see themselves as having a role in education; schools, colleges and universities that routinely work with businesses, and individuals who develop a lifelong habit of learning. Only 1 in 4 businesses offer any form of work experience and we have critical technical skills gaps – Education and the world of work must be better connected to empower and motivate people to develop relevant skills to meet business needs. Apprenticeships are one of the most effective ways for young people to get into work but we are a long way off them being a credible route into work or higher learning – we need to expand quality apprenticeships as a gold standard of earning and learning. Employers need to play a more integral role throughout the whole vocational education system and a focus on employer leaderships and quality is critical in vocational courses at all levels delivered in colleges, schools and universities. In England we have a low number of courses at the level after school and below degree (which can also be described as professional technical education). We suggest that colleges in particular need to work more closely with employers in order to increase the range and quality of provision available at this level. Workplace productivity How productive people are in work depends on their level of skills but also on how those skills are used. In turn, this depends on how jobs are designed and how people and organisations are managed. This is an important issue at the lower end of the labour market where the UK is nearly unique in that just under a quarter of all jobs only require primary school level education attainment. To prosper, businesses and workers must adapt. The workplace needs to be a site for lifelong learning, innovation and social mobility. This means better management of people and organisations, better job design, increased employee engagement, new ways of working and far greater transparency about the value of people to business success. Concluding comments In the last few decades, the skills and employment landscape, particularly in England, has been too dynamic – there have been 61 Secretaries of State over the last 3 decades. Over time, this has alienated real employer engagement - just 18% of employers engage with schools, colleges and universities to provide some kind of work experience (whether that is mentoring, setting coursework, mock interviews, placements etc. (EPS 2014)) - to the detriment of learners and businesses. Government’s role is to create the right conditions and incentives that support employers and employees to focus on long-term business and career development, not short-term government initiatives. In turn, the business community –meaning employers and employees - need to step up to take leadership and responsibility for developing the skills and jobs that are needed for future competitiveness. Businesses, and the people who work in them, must be in the driving seat. They are the engines of growth and hold the key to improving productivity and providing good jobs.