National Employers Skills Survey 2007: key findings

The National Employers Skills Survey 2007 (NESS07) provides detailed information on the incidence, extent and nature of skills problems facing employers, in terms of both recruitment and skills gaps within their existing workforce. It explores employers' activities and expenditure in relation to training. The NESS07 was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) along with its partners, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA). This report presents key findings from NESS07. A more detailed investigation of the data can be found in the full report - National Employers Skills Survey 2007: Main Report (indexed at TD/TNC 95.554). This key findings report is divided into the following sections: Key Findings; Recruitment and Recruitment Problems; Skills Gap; Recruitment of Young People; Training Activity and Expenditure. Headline findings include: Skills gaps are experienced by a minority of employers (15 per cent), and form a small proportion of the total workforce - 6 per cent of all staff are considered to lack full proficiency; The proportion of employers reporting skills gaps has fallen slightly since 2005, continuing a downward trend seen since a high of 23 per cent in 2001; Over two-thirds of employers provide training for at least some of their staff (67 per cent), continuing a steady increase since training was first measured in 2003 (59 per cent); The proportion of the workforce receiving training has also increased from 61 per cent in 2005 and 2004 to 63 per cent in 2007; The cost to employers of providing training totalled 38.6 billion [British pounds] for the 12 months prior to NESS07, up 16 per cent on 2005 (10 per cent when inflation is taken into account). The largest share of this total is due to the labour costs of those receiving training (47 per cent of the total) and those delivering on-thejob training or organising training (37 per cent). Providing training is estimated to cost an average of 1,725 [British pounds] per employee.

The main report is indexed at TD/TNC 95.554.

The National Employers Skills Survey 2007 (NESS07) provides detailed information on the incidence, extent and nature of skills problems facing employers, in terms of both recruitment and skills gaps within their existing workforce. It explores employers' activities and expenditure in relation to training. The NESS07 was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) along with its partners, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA). This report presents key findings from NESS07. A more detailed investigation ...  [+] Show more