Employers Skill Survey: new analyses and lessons learned

The first UK Employers Skills Survey (ESS) was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 1999 for the National Skills Task Force. Further installments to ESS were added in 2001 and 2002. The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will carry out a further survey in 2003. This present study aimed to analyse the datasets of the surveys to determine whether further conclusions on a range of skills issues could be established. Specific objectives of this research were: to identify the most useful measures of skill deficiencies emerging from ESS and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the ESS datasets; to develop useful and reliable sectoral data to inform the new Sector Skills Councils (SSCs); and to identify the nature, extent and consequences of different types of skill deficiencies and employer responses to them. Key findings suggest that: skill shortage vacancies have not varied much during the period 1999-2001; some skill relationships are unexpected, e.g. sectors with high skill needs do not necessarily experience the greatest skill deficiencies; product market strategies are more competitive in industrial sectors that employ more highly educated workers; some evidence suggests that off-the-job training is a response to recruitment difficulties; and rates of off-the-job training activity can be very different between apparently similar establishments and characteristics explaining these differences still need to be identified. The report is structured in eight chapters, one on each of seven topics and an overview. The chapters are: Employers Skill Survey: new analyses and lessons learned: an overview / Geoff Mason and Rob Wilson (p. 1-19); Assessment of the reliability and robustness of sectoral data from the Employers Skills Surveys / John Forth (p. 20-50); Assessment of measures of skills deficiencies in the Employers Skills Surveys / John Forth, Geoff Mason and Philip Stevens (p. 51-70); Persistence of skill deficiencies across sectors, 1999-2001 / John Forth and Geoff Mason (p. 71-89); Skill requirements and skill deficiencies: developing a new typology of sectors / Andy Dickerson, Geoff Mason and John Forth (p. 90-109); Qualifications and skill deficiencies / David Campbell and Terence Hogarth (p. 110-135); The determinants of hard-to-fill vacancies and skill-shortage vacancies in key occupational groups / Geoff Mason and Philip Stevens (p. 136-185); The determinants of the incidence and intensity of off-the-job training / Andy Dickerson and Rob Wilson (p. 186-212). Show less