PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

As the economy emerges from the slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there continues to be skills shortages in the UK Economy. That is the message from the latest Business Barometer published recently by the Open University in partnership with the Institute of Directors.  Through surveying 1,500 senior business leaders across the UK last month, it focused on examining a range of issues including recruiting due to skills shortages, recruitment spend, training intent and ability, and future challenges. The results are fascinating and, more importantly, a significant wakeup call to politicians and policymakers at both a national and devolved level on what is needed to ensure that we have the skilled people in place to support future economic growth. For example, the number of business leaders reporting that their organisation is experiencing a skills shortage has increased since last year from 56% to 61%. More relevantly for the UK economy, the majority also believe that these sk...

The major challenge for educational systems across the World is not only about developing skills within young people (although that is a critical issue in many countries). In fact, the real issue is about addressing the need for reskilling amongst the existing workforce with the OECD reporting that over 25 per cent of adults have reported a mismatch between their current skillset and qualifications needed for their jobs. More critically, 35 per cent of the skills that are needed across industries will change over the next two years. That is why a recent report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) should be compulsory reading for politicians and policymakers who are trying to address some of the key competitiveness and productivity questions within their economies. “Accelerating Workforce Reskilling for the Fourth Industrial Revolution” examines some of the key challenges for greater lifelong learning for the existing workforce and comes up with a series of key recommendation...

Earlier this year, I undertook some research work to gain a detailed insight into the skill needs of small to medium-sized firms (SMEs) across a range of sectors, focusing on examining current skill gaps and shortages as well as future needs from the view of both supply and demand for skills. Whilst the work focused on businesses based in South East Wales, the results are also of relevance to businesses in North Wales and tell us a lot about what SMEs need to do to enhance their competitiveness through better skills. First of all, the research showed that majority of businesses are currently facing skills gaps but cannot appoint new members of staff to fill these gaps mainly because of issues within each sector, including manufacturing, construction and services. For example, most manufacturing firms are having difficulties with technical skills but are focusing on addressing these gaps through intensive internal training as the technology changes or, where necessary, by promoti...