CBI survey: Skills gap is widening

According to the latest CBI survey, UK employers are worried that they will not be able to recruit enough highly-skilled workers.

According to an annual CBI survey of 500 employers, together employing over three million people, an increasing number of UK employers are concerned that they will not be able to recruit enough highly skilled employers. A total of 69% had concerns – a rise on last year’s 55%.

The results reflecting a changing jobs market show that the number of low-skilled jobs need to be cut. The survey also revealed problems with basic skills, with a third of businesses having concerns about literacy and numeracy levels of the recruits, although employers were more likely to rate attitude at work as more important than formal qualifications.

Following the vote to leave the EU, skills shortages are holding back businesses across all regions and many sectors, including manufacturing, construction and professional services.

The survey was completed before the EU referendum, but since the vote, the urgency has been heightened.

Josh Hardie, CBI Deputy General said that tackling the skills gap has become a “top business priority”.

The CBI’s report on the survey results said: “Not only will we have our existing UK skills shortages to address, but potentially reduced access to migrant skills will also impact businesses,”

Neil Carberry, the business group’s Director of employment and skills, said it was “absolutely critical” that businesses had clarity on the status of EU nationals currently working in the UK.

Rod Bristow, President of Pearson UK, and co-sponsor of the survey, said: “Employers don’t just value what people know; they value what they can do. By far the most important ‘skills factor’ centres on attitudes and aptitudes such as ability to present well.”

The report also discussed the government’s new apprenticeship levy, which will see companies paying for targets for more apprenticeships, warning that employers want “better training places and do not want to pay extra for current training to be “rebadged”.

Mr Hardie said the levy scheme “will need a genuine change of direction if it is to work” and he warned that employers still did not have enough practical information about the proposals.

“As it stands the levy system will work in Whitehall but it won’t work in Walsall,” he said.

 

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