A new study suggests that up to seven
million workers in England may lack the Essential Employment
Skills (EES)* they need to do their jobs by the year
2035.
Rethinking skills gaps and
solutions is the
latest in a suite of papers under the NFER-led Skills Imperative 2035: Essential skills for tomorrow's
workforce, a five-year
research programme funded by the Nuffield
Foundation.
The analysis, conducted by
NFER, is the first of its kind;
using a specially designed instrument
to estimate both the EES that
people possess (skills supply) and the skills requirements of
their jobs (skills demand), before comparing the two to quantify
skills gaps.
It suggests that the proportion of
workers in England with ‘substantial' EES deficiencies – meaning
the skills requirements of their jobs surpass the skills they
possess - may grow from 13 per cent of workers (3.7 million
people) in 2023 up to 22 per cent (seven million) in 2035 unless
urgent action is taken.
This is largely because most workers
across the labour market will need to utilise EES more
intensively in their jobs in the future. Almost 90 per cent of
the 2.2 million new jobs that will be created in England between
2020 and 2035 will be professional occupations, such as
scientists and engineers. These roles will require higher levels
of proficiency in these EES. Unless workers' supply of these
skills rises in response, skills gaps are likely to become more
prevalent and more problematic.
Jude Hillary, the programme's
Principal Investigator and NFER's Co-Head of UK Policy and
Practice, said:
“The Government should be concerned
about the prospect of widening skills gaps and should incentivise
employer investment in the development of their workforce's
essential employment skills.
“Allowing these gaps to widen could
lead to the stifling of the country's productivity and act as a
drag on economic growth.”
Dr Emily Tanner, Programme
Head at the Nuffield Foundation,
said:
"The robust measurement of essential
employment skills in this report provides compelling evidence of
the importance of skills for individuals and businesses alike. It
demonstrates the need for a lifelong approach to skill
development as well as opportunities to put skills to use across
all occupations."
The report also
says:
-
Nearly one in five workers
in managerial jobs (e.g. HR managers and directors),
professional jobs (e.g. accountants) and associate professional
occupations (e.g. engineering technicians) have substantial EES
skills deficiencies.
-
Workers in jobs
such as skilled trades, sales,
customer services and admin are more likely to have under-utilised EES skills which they
have developed in previous roles or outside of work. Tapping
into these latent skills will become increasingly important for
employers, individuals and the economy, given the crucial role
EES will play across the workforce in
2035.
-
Higher levels of EES are associated
with higher job and life
satisfaction.
-
People with higher levels of EES
earn more and are more likely to be in management
positions.
The paper
recommends:
-
That employers grappling with skills
gaps should consider what more they can do to align
expectations and skills assessments between managers and
workers across their workforce.
-
Employers should consider what more
they can do to support their line managers to identify and
utilise the ‘latent' EES of their
workers.
-
Government should further
incentivise employer investment in the development of their
workforce's EES.
-
The Department for Education (DfE)
considers what more it can do to support education and training
providers to identify and adopt the best strategies for
assessing and developing people's
EES.
* These skills are: communication,
collaboration, problem-solving, organising, planning and
prioritising work, creative thinking and information
literacy.
ENDS℗ NOTES TO EDITORS
The co-investigators on the Skills
Imperative 2035 programme are from the following institutions:
University of Warwick, University of Sheffield, University of
Roehampton Cambridge Econometrics, Learning & Work Institute
and Kantar Public.
