This article has been compiled by Helen Stacey from Aspire Jobs, comprising of highlights from a January 2021 research report, by Edge Foundation, focusing on Skills Shortages in the UK.
2020 saw significant change to the education system and the labour market. Yet, these are not new challenges. These have been fundamental challenges affecting both education and labour in recent years but have now been intensified by Covid-19.
In 2019 The Department of Education Employer Skills Survey showed that nearly a quarter of all vacancies were skills shortage vacancies, an increase of 2% since 2017.
Predating Covid-19, the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit and ongoing developments associated with future drivers of change around technological advances and other megatrends, have been driving dramatic developments to local economies, their industrial make-up and the nature and composition of employment and skills requirements across the UK for decades. The increasing pace of innovation in the workplace together with technological advances are placing an onus on people and their skills, and hence to upskill and retrain, to optimise the use of machines, and to drive ongoing business development and growth.
Online learning provider The Skills Network have analysed 1.5 million job postings to identify the most in demand skills and job roles sought by employers in the Covid-19 landscape.
Whilst we may not have been able to predict the way 2020 unfolded, evidence suggests that COVID-19 has resulted in a shift in the types of skills that employers are looking for. Navigating this difficult economy is about helping people to develop the resilient skills sought by today’s employers. These are the skills that we must help people of all ages to acquire, helping them to excel and ultimately secure new or better employment. The Report found that the skills most in demand by employers are auditing skills, followed by nursing and accounting.
The research also found that technical skills in programming, coding and software development are in very high demand, with technological roles growing by 7.3% each year, specifically, technical skills in agile software development and JavaScript, SQL, and Python programming languages.
The ability to identify and address mental illness has really become desirable for most employers across all sectors. There has been a 21% annual increase in mental health related skills being listed in job postings across all sectors and understanding mental health has become the seventh most in- demand skill in the UK.
60% of Chief Finance Officers say there is a shortage of financial skills in the UK, with auditing and accounting skills being the first and third most in-demand technical skills in the country, respectively.
There has been a clear increase in sales roles with 18% of all roles in the UK requiring strong skills in sales. Selling and business development skills were listed in over 277,000 job postings since March 2020.
The report also analysed those “soft skills” most required by employers, finding that being able to display soft skills like management, leadership and planning is crucial for candidates.
In terms of job roles and key sectors hit by Covid-19 – employment opportunities in several sectors are currently limited and/or at risk, including the hospitality and leisure, food and drink, aviation, and physical retail sectors.
On the contrary – several sectors continue to perform well despite the Covid-19 recession: construction, employment law, online retail, digital marketing, technology, and online learning.
The green economy and specifically green jobs have traditionally been thought of as those that involve renewable energy, electric transport, energy efficiency or nature conservation. In 2018 there were 185,000 full-time workers in England’s low-carbon and renewable energy economy. In 2030 across England there could be as many as 694,000 direct jobs employed in the low-carbon and renewable energy economy, rising to over 1.18 million by 2050 (Local Government Association, 2020). But, as more sectors transition to low-carbon models, every job has the potential to become “green” – to have a direct, positive impact on the planet.
With rising levels of unemployment since the pandemic, the government is keen to create jobs and get people working again. The prime minster has set a goal for the UK to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, therefore the government has highlighted that green jobs will be at the heart of the economic recovery. In 2020 a number of schemes to address these points have been announced.
Cloud based computing is on the rise, this capability allows the creation, hosting, and executing of applications that can scale up much faster, due to the environment’s capacity to handle large volumes. Between 2017 and 2018, employer demand for cloud skills only grew by 3.4%, compared to a staggering 22% between 2018 and 2019.
With an increasing demand for digital tech roles, there will inevitably be a surge for the relevant skills to undertake a role.
Over the past 3 years, we see that the demand for roles containing AI, cyber and cloud skills have all increased. We observe the larger increase from 2018-2019, particularly with the likes of AI. AI and cyber grew by 44% and 22% respectively year on year.
The CBI has set out a package of measures that they believe the government needs to adopt as a first step towards increasing investment in training by businesses, government, and individuals. They include:
- Help small businesses overcome barriers to training investment, such as lack of capacity and resource, by introducing SME tax credits.
- Boost overall business investment in skills by turning the Apprenticeship Levy into a Skills and Training Levy which funds high-quality accredited training.
- Encourage people to take up new training opportunities by introducing Career Development Accounts which help remove financial barriers.
- Ensure the new flexible loans entitlement is extended to adults of all ages and accommodates shorter bitesize courses, not just longer formal qualifications.
- Encourage more people to have a stake in lifelong learning by turning ‘Job Centres’ into ‘Jobs and Skills Hubs’ which offer face-to-face support.
Aspire Jobs contact is Helen Stacey: 07974 429217, helen@aspirejobs.co.uk