South West Regional Skills Enterprise and Employment Analysis 2007/2008

Final Report

4.2 Current Demand for Skills

4.2.3 Generic employability skills

The SLIM commissioned report, Generic Employability Skills - Aspiration, Provision And Perception(15), defines generic employability skills as a suite of ‘transferable’ skills independent of the occupational sectors and organisations in which individuals work, and which (are seen to) contribute to an individual’s overall employability by enhancing their capacity to adapt, learn and work independently. These skills are required not only to gain employment but also to progress within an organisation. Put simply, generic employability skills are those that apply across a variety of jobs, organisations and sectors. They are also known by several other names, including key skills, core skills, essential skills, key competencies, transferable skills and employability skills.

Employers are increasingly seeking generic skills alongside technical skills as a means of developing a workforce that is able to cope with increasingly complex work practices, team working, reduced supervision, greater job flexibility and rotation, and increased interaction with consumers.

The evidence on skill gaps, highlighted above, shows that generic employability skills are a major skill gap reported across a range of sectors. A further major concern, often expressed anecdotally by managers, is that new young entrants to their industries frequently lack the skills or attributes they require and that skills lost via staff retirements are assets which are hard to replace. With a workforce in the South West which is somewhat older on average than elsewhere in the UK, this may be a stronger concern for this region than elsewhere.

NESS 2005 indicates:

• A quarter of employers recruiting young people said that 16 year old school leavers were poorly prepared for work, 19% said that 17-18 year old school/College leavers were poorly prepared;
• Key problems with 16 year olds were lack of motivation, lack of work/life experience, poor general education, and lack of practical experience;
• Key problems with 17-18 year olds were lack of motivation, lack of job-specific skills, lack of work/life experience, and lack of practical experience.

This indicates there is a gap in the employability skills of a significant minority of young people in employers’ eyes, whether or not that gap is wholly justifiable from other perspectives. What is needed to remedy this gap mainly appears to be:

• The development of a stronger work ethic and commitment to work among 16-18 year olds;
• Wider and better work experience;
• The development of more job-specific skills at the 17-18 stage.

The Sector Analysis (see Section 4.6) also highlights the importance of generic employability skills. Improving attitudes and motivation is a clear priority for Automotiveskills, which feels that the sector is sometimes seen as suitable for the less able. For Pro-skills, developing ‘commercial awareness’, a sense of responsibility and ownership of employer objectives are stressed, things that clearly link to leadership skills. For LANTRA and Improve, the emphasis is on generic skills such as team-working, communication, flexibility and initiative, while within Skills for Justice there is an emphasis on both employability and life skills and ‘maturity’ required to handle potentially difficult situations.

Links are frequently made between generic employability skills and the customer handling skills that are critical in sectors like People 1st and Skillsmart Retail. For Automotiveskills and Skills for Health, where there are large numbers of front-line service staff, there is a clear need to embed these skills in Level 2 and other provision. Skills for Logistics point to John Lewis’ practice of combining delivery with installation and demonstration of new goods as an example of this trend in their industry.

Sectors tend to distinguish between ‘generic skills’ (team working, communication, partnership working) that may be developed at a number of levels across organisations and basic ‘employability’ skills (time-keeping, motivation, taking instruction) that tend to be most often identified as lacking among new recruits.

Conclusions

This indicates that there is a need for strategies to be developed between providers and employers to devise employability skills frameworks that are embedded within a range of training provision. Existing good practice needs to be more effectively shared. The generic Employability Skills Guidance being developed by SLIM may go some way towards achieving this but needs to be further encouraged by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in its contracting arrangements.

Pre-employment activities which support young people and adults need to be enhanced to include employability skills. ESF funded provision is particularly important in this respect.

(15) Professor D Greatbatch et al, Generic Employability Skills - Aspiration, Provision and Perception, SLIM, July 2004