Survey reveals lack of basic skills among workforce

Wilson, Alex

Overview

Article

Survey reveals lack of basic skills among workforce

Published: 25 November 2012

Alex Wilson

Skills and training

In June 2012, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI [1]) and international training provider Pearson [2] published findings from their fifth annual UK Education and skills survey (6.56Mb PDF) [3]. The survey is based on responses from 542 British companies employing a total of 1.6 million workers, and was conducted between January and February 2012. Responses came from businesses of all sizes, a range of sectors and different regions.[1] http://www.cbi.org.uk/[2] http://www.pearson.com/[3] http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/1514978/cbi_education_and_skills_survey_2012.pdf

The latest CBI/Pearson annual survey on education and skills training in the UK reveals that employers continue to experience gaps in the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and information technology in the nation’s workforce. Despite some improvement over previous years, employers are concerned by these skill gaps. The survey shows employers are increasingly investing in remedial training in basic skills for school leavers, graduates and adult employees alike.

Introduction

In June 2012, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and international training provider Pearson published findings from their fifth annual UK Education and skills survey (6.56Mb PDF). The survey is based on responses from 542 British companies employing a total of 1.6 million workers, and was conducted between January and February 2012. Responses came from businesses of all sizes, a range of sectors and different regions.

Preparing for working life

The report reveals that employers recognise that they carry responsibility to provide training for employees to do specific jobs. However, the survey reveals that employers are experiencing gaps in basic skills such as literacy, numeracy and IT. Employers expressed concern about the basic skills of different groups of employees, including school/college leavers, graduates and adult employees, as shown in Table 1 below:

**Table 1: Employers reporting dissatisfaction with basic skills of employees (%)**
	School/college leavers	Graduates	Adult employees
Literacy/use of English	35	15	55
Numeracy	30	10	56
IT skills	13	6	66

Source: CBI/Pearson Education and skills survey 2012

Among school and college leavers there has been some improvement, with greater employer satisfaction with literacy and numeracy skills in 2012 than in 2011. Over this period, employers’ levels of concern about literacy skills dropped from 42% to 35%. Their dissatisfaction with numeracy skills dropped from 35% to 30%.

Both school leavers and graduates perform better than those already in the labour market in meeting the expected level of IT skills, although there is still concern that 13% of school and college leavers are not adequately trained in IT. The survey also shows that employer satisfaction with basic skills varies across sectors in the economy, as illustrated in the figure below.

Employers reporting concerns over basic skills, by sector (%)

Source: Exhibit 34 (page 35) of CBI/Pearson Education and skills survey 2012

Employers are most frequently concerned with a lack of IT skills. This was highest in the public sector (84%), construction industry (76%) and in retail, hospitality and other services (73%) sectors. The report suggests that this will remain a feature of the UK labour market because ‘shortcomings in IT skills affect more and more jobs as the use of technology spreads to new activities’. Concern by employers about basic skills has meant that remedial training has become commonplace.

**Table 2: Employers providing remedial training in past year (%)**
	School/college leavers	Graduates	Adult employees
Proportion of employers organising remedial training in one or more area	42	26	58
Literacy/use of English	20	6	15
Numeracy	18	5	13
IT skills	23	14	50

Source: CBI/Pearson Education and skills survey 2012

Table 2 shows that remedial training was more often needed by adult employees, with over half (58%) of employers providing them with training, than by school/college leavers (42%) or graduates (26%). IT skills enhancement is the most common remedial training provided by employers for all groups. However, half of all employers had decided to provide remedial training for adult employees in the past year, compared with 23% who provided IT training for college and school leavers, and just 14% providing such training for graduates.

Reaction

National news coverage focused on the survey’s finding that 42% of employers need to provide remedial training in basic skills to school and college leavers because, in their opinion, school leavers are ‘unable to function in the workplace’. The CBI argues that school leavers need – at the very least – these basic skills as a platform on which they can build a skillset that enables their employers to remain internationally competitive.

Commenting on the report, Chris Keates, General Secretary of teachers’ union NASUWT, argued in a press release that a long-term commitment to investment in education by government and employers was needed. He called for their help to address the problems identified in the report and to meet ‘…the challenge of developing the 21st century skills that business and the economy needs’.

Reference

CBI/Pearson (2012), Learning to grow: what employers need from education and skills. Education and skills survey 2012, CBI, London.

Alex Wilson, IRRU, University of Warwick

Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.

Eurofound (2012), Survey reveals lack of basic skills among workforce, article.