Search Results

The 2004 National Employers Skills Survey (NESS) was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), in partnership with the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), to provide detailed information on skills and workforce development issues facing employers in England to serve as a common basis to develop policy and assess the impact of skills initiatives. The survey included 27,000 employers across all sectors of business activity in England. This report is presented in three main sections: 'Skill shortages and other recruitment difficulties' explores the scale and nature of recruitment problems, focusing on the incidence, number, distribution and density of vacancies caused at least partially by a lack of skills, experience or qualifications among those applying; 'Skills gaps within the existing workforce' examines the incidence of skills gaps within the workforce, both in terms of the frequency with which employers have skills gaps and the proportion of staff described as lacking in proficiency, and explores the main causes of skills gaps and the skills that are described as lacking among the workforce in England; 'Training and workforce development' explores the extent, nature and volume of training and workforce development activity, including the proportion of establishments that provide on- and off-the-job training, the extent to which employers plan and budget for training, and the factors that influence training activity. The findings indicate: that skills deficiencies continue to affect about a quarter of the employers; evidence of a slight easing of skills problems for employers in terms of the number of staff lacking skills and the number of vacancies where skills shortages are experienced; skills deficiencies affect different size and sector of employer, and occupational group, very differently; and there have been significant increases in the proportion of employers with training plans.

The key findings report is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 83.264. Show less

This report is the third in an annual series of employer surveys that investigate workforce development ('Learning and training at work 2000' is indexed at TD/TNC 67.435 and 'Learning and training at work 1999' is indexed at TD/TNC 62.664). The objectives of the 2001 survey were to collect information about: the volume, type and pattern of off-the-job training; key indicators of employers' commitment to training such as Investors in People (IiP); learning opportunities offered; and awareness of, and involvement with, a number of initiatives relevant to training. Show less

This report summarises the findings of the National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) 2003 for the SkillsActive Sector Skills Council, which covers sport, recreation, children's play, health and fitness, outdoor education, caravan parks, recreation and adventure. The NESS was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), in partnership with the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), to provide detailed information about the extent, causes and implications of England's recruitment problems and skill gaps. It also measures employers' training activities. Key findings include: the largest firms are proportionately more likely to have hard-to-fill vacancies, but in terms of actual numbers the largest proportion of hard-to-fill and skill shortage vacancies lie within the smallest firms; larger firms are also more likely to have skill gaps and also have the highest proportion of staff suffering from skill gaps; vacancies are predominantly for elementary staff and personal service staff; skill gaps are most likely to affect elementary and sales and customer service staff; the main causes of hard-to-fill vacancies are poor terms and conditions offered for the job and the lack of people interested in doing the type of work in the sector; the main causes of skill gaps are the lack of experience of the member of staff and it appears that skill gaps are linked to recruitment difficulties; the most common skills lacking in applicants are team working skills, communication skills, technical and practical skills and customer handling skills; the major area of skill gaps are in the same areas; skills that are in shortage reflect the nature of the job, e.g. sales staff are more likely to have deficiencies in communication and customer handling skills and managers and senior officials lack management skills.

The main report and the report of the key findings of the National Employers Skills Survey 2003 are indexed at TD/TNC 79.281 and TD/TNC 79.599. Individual Sector Skills Council reports are indexed from TD/TNC 79.275 to TD/TNC 79.280. Show less

The objectives of the Workforce Training in England 2006 survey were to collect information from employers about: the volume, type and pattern of employer-provided training; the motivations for training and the impact it has had; the barriers to undertaking any or more training; the use of external training providers and levels of satisfaction with them; awareness of government programmes and initiatives connected with training, and levels of involvement with them. The survey consists of 4,002 interviews undertaken with employers in England. All sizes and sectors were included. A multi-stage sampling strategy was used taking into account establishment size, industry sector and region. Findings include: overall, three fifths of employers (61 per cent) reported that they had provided some employees at the location with training over the previous 12 months; size is a key determinant of the likelihood of training being provided; three fifths (61 per cent) of all employees have received training in the last 12 months; managers, professionals and associate professionals were more likely to have been provided with training by their employer than other occupational groups; health and safety and job specific skills training were the most likely types of training to be provided by employers that train (79 per cent and 76 per cent respectively); two thirds of employers that train had also provided induction training (67 per cent); half had funded or arranged training to develop management and leadership skills (49 per cent) and a similar proportion had sought to develop interpersonal skills through training (47 per cent); basic skills training had been arranged by one in eight employers that train (12 per cent, equivalent to 7 per cent of all employers), and this was most commonly training in numeracy (5 per cent of all employers), literacy (5 per cent) or English language (3 per cent); the most common method used to deliver training is via in-house staff at the trainee’s usual workstation (71 per cent of employers that train use this method); training delivered off-site by external providers (59 per cent) and using external providers or in-house staff to deliver a taught course on-site (68 per cent) were also common methods among establishments funding or arranging training; and almost two thirds of employers that train (65 per cent) relied on staff to participate in some form of self-learning (including e-learning).

Excerpts from published introduction and summary of findings. Show less

In the April 2006 White Paper, 'Further education: raising skills, improving life chances' (indexed at TD/IRD 88.158), the UK Government states its aim for 'all adults to be able to continue gaining new and valuable skills, and for all employers to see training as an essential investment in their workforces'. Since its inception in 1998, the Union Learning Fund (ULF) has sought to support the development of learning and skills by encouraging the take up of learning in the workplace through partnership between the unions and employers. The ULF is now in its ninth year and has funding until March 2008. The primary aim of this evaluation of the ULF - rounds four to seven, was to capture and establish the impact the ULF has had on the lifelong learning and workforce development agenda across three interlinked themes: (1) capacity development within unions and employers to support the learning agenda; (2) the activities and responsibilities of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) in terms of engaging and supporting learners in the workplace; and (3) the influence of union support on the take up of learning in the workplace. As a result of the low response rate from unions, the findings are based on just 20 unions. Of those, all unions reported significant increases in available resources to support lifelong learning including union officers and ULRs. Similarly, results from the small sample size achieved in the employer survey indicate that employers are supporting the union learning agenda. Of those employers responding to the survey, 32 (35 per cent) stated that they had developed a lifelong learning policy in their workplace as a result of union learning funded activity. ULRs are actively engaging colleagues in the workplace to undertake learning. Thirty one per cent (134) of learners stated they found out about learning opportunities through their ULR. Twenty per cent (87) of learners stated that they had been referred onto learning directly through the ULR model. Since 2001, there have been over 153,000 learning opportunities delivered as a result of the ULF funding, although there is no information about the type or level of learning undertaken. Results suggest that the ULF has been used to develop important elements of the lifelong learning agenda, particularly union structures and strategies, resources, expertise, facilities and partnerships with employers and training providers. However, the report makes several key recommendations relating to the need for more accurate information from unions, better monitoring of learning referrals and outcomes, and central collation of data, more coordinated support from unions for ULRs, and more strategic communication with employers by unions to increase awareness of the benefits of union supported learning. Show less

This document reports on a review of employer investment and co-funding in publicly-funded training. The review was commissioned in 2005 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to explore current employer activity and to help inform public policy. It focuses mainly on qualitative assessment, examining the experiences of 32 targeted employers known to have been innovative in developing co-funding relationships within the post-16 sector. The report examines the following areas: (1) current employer activity in investment and co-funding of publicly-funded training, including patterns of employer investment and trends, and the role of brokers; (2) employer implementation and, in particular, rationales for co-funding, resourcing arrangements, and direction; (3) progress and impact within organisations with a focus on achievements and outcomes against expectations, success factors and constraints; and (4) issues and implications, drawn from the experiences of these employers, and implications for public policy. The review provides useful evidence of processes, benefits, and what enables, and frustrates, successful co-funding. The findings suggest a wide range of experience among employers on effectiveness of co-funding, but with employers generally perceiving the relationships as valuable and cost-effective. The evidence suggests that employer co-funding in the post-16 sector needs help to extend what appears to be a ‘currently narrow basis of employer experience’. Supporting annexes contain: the methodology and selection of employers; literature sources; a list of in-depth employer case studies; and summary matrices indicating employer investment and co-funding activity for all interviewed employers. Show less

The National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) is the largest of its kind ever commissioned, and aims to investigate the extent, causes and implications of England's recruitment problems and skills gaps, and at the same time measure employers' training activities. The Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) commissioned reports from a number of Sector Skills Councils, and this report summarises the NESS 2003 for Lantra, the Sector Skills Council for the environmental and land-based sector. This sector has a broad coverage, but for the purposes of this report only three broad clusters are focused upon: environmental industries, animal health and welfare, and land management and production. The overwhelming majority of establishments in this field are micro-businesses, with 94% employing fewer than five people. Due to survey restrictions, self-employed sole-proprietors were not included in the data, though many exist in the Lantra field, and 445 interviews were conducted in total. Employers were asked about specific skills they require now and skills they expected to be required in three years time. The two main occupations in this sector are identified as managers or proprieters in agriculture, and skilled agricultural tradespeople. For the former, communication, customer handling, numeracy, literacy and teamworking skills were all identified as important, while in the case of skilled trades, technical and practical skills are needed at an advanced level. The report also considers the extent of recruitment difficulties and skill gaps, and finds that: 56 per cent of establishments in the lifelong learning sector face hard-to-fill vacancies; 27 per cent of establishments suffer from internal skill gaps, with staff being regarded as less than fully proficient; vacancies and skill gaps are most common amongst skilled trades and elementary occupations, reflecting the importance of technical skills to this sector; the main causes of skill gaps are primarily perceived to be due to staff having a lack of experience; the main causes of hard-to-fill vacancies are a lack of interest in this type of work, and a low number of applicants with the required skills; and the most common skills lacking in applicants are technical and practical skills, communication skills, management skills and problem solving skills. Barriers to developing and maintaining a proficient team of staff in the Lantra sector are identified as including: lack of time for training for those with skill gaps; a lack of cover for training; and a lack of funds for training. The report also considers issues associated with employer engagement in developing their workforce. Show less

This research study addresses a number of research questions regarding the engagement of employers with higher education institutions (HEI). These include: how do employers use and view graduate skills; what are employer views on high-level skills development and HEIs; is there scope for greater employer-HEI collaboration in pursuit of knowledge transfer through high-level skills development; and what are the geographical patterns of employer-HEI engagement and is this engagement organised at national or local (city-region) levels? Evidence was compiled from a literature review, a compilation of statistics from the Labour Force Survey, National Employers Skills Survey 2005, and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Origins and Destinations data, and from case studies with 74 employers, all of whom had recently recruited new graduates. The case studies were distributed across 18 city-regions in England. Key findings include: the majority of employers are satisfied with the recent graduates they had recruited; there is already a considerable degree of employer engagement with HEI, especially amongst larger employers; continuing professional development (CPD) is mainly a local relationship, as employees need to be able to study close to where they work; and the introduction of Foundation Degrees, although highly regarded by those employers that have committed to them, has had little impact on employer-HEI engagement. Show less

Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) were introduced as a key element of the United Kingdom (UK) government's lifelong learning agenda with the objective of providing a vehicle for funding continuous learning. The national ILA framework was introduced in September 2000. The strategy was designed to empower individuals to invest in their own learning through individual accounts combined with complementary government incentives. As part of the first year of the national ILA scheme, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned an early evaluation of the characteristics of ILA redeemers/non-redeemers and customer satisfaction with the process of opening and using an ILA. Findings are published in the reports indexed at TD/TNC 69.213 and TD/TNC 69.215. This small scale follow-up study was commissioned by the DfES to supplement and extend the initial evaluation. The main aims of the study is to provide evidence on how early and more recent ILA holders view and use their ILAs and to make comparisons between each group. Associated key questions were: (1) to identify if ILAs are a fund for continuous/repeated learning; (2) to assess if opening/using an ILA has changed individuals' attitudes towards further learning; (3) to identify the levels of investment by individuals and employers in learning activities funded by ILAs; (4) to assess if taking part in an ILA-funded course has affected an individual's employability; and (5) to assess ILA holders' awareness of the ILA 'brand'. This report makes several recommendations, including the suggestion that policy options be considered to reduce 'deadweight' or those redeemers who would have been able to fund training without support from their ILA, which could inform the development of future plans which build on the successful elements of the ILA program.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of promoting ILAs through community-based organisations is indexed at TD/TNC 70.243. Show less

This research explored the use and operation of training allowances and the impact that they have on the behaviour of young people and on employers. Specific objectives were to: develop a better understanding of how training allowances influence young people’s decisions to enter, and remain in, vocational training programs; determine what impact the availability of training allowances has on employers offering training opportunities. The research methodology comprised an initial scoping study, involving interviews with trainees, training providers and employers; a questionnaire survey of a representative sample of 5,000 trainees; and telephone surveys of 25 training providers, 62 employers and 40 Local Learning and Skills Councils (LLSCs). The Minimum Training Allowance (MTA) was introduced to provide financial support to non-employed learners aged 16 to 24. Administered by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the MTA is set at UKP 40 per week, though there is flexibility for Local Learning and Skills Councils (LLSCs) to pay more depending on local circumstances. The research revealed that: there a wide variety of views and experiences of training allowance payments across the UK; the amount that young people receive while doing an apprenticeship is very important in ensuring take-up and continued motivation; the MTA was not a key factor in ensuring completion of apprenticeships, strongly suggesting that training allowances should be viewed as a short-term solution to the funding of work-based learning placements; training allowances provided a strong incentive for some employers to take on apprentices; although practice in relation to the use and payment of MTAs appears to have improved, greater standardisation is still needed. Show less