South West Regional Skills Enterprise and Employment Analysis 2007/2008

Final Report

4.14 Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)

4.14.4 Sector priorities

Advice and Guidance was identified as a concern for all 25 of the sectors reviewed and a key priority for 19 of these. Improving the image and awareness of employment within the sector was seen as a key priority for:

• Automotiveskills, which identifies bad press and fictional characters as playing a role in reducing the attractiveness of sector.
• Skills for Logistics, which feels ‘the sector presents a poor image, particularly to young potential entrants, resulting in an inadequate pool of the right type of applicants to logistics jobs’.
• ConstructionSkills, which wants to see greater numbers of people from ethnic minorities in trades occupations.
• Skills for Justice, which identifies poor public perceptions of some careers, e.g. in prisons and probation, as contributing to recruitment difficulties.
• Skillsmart Retail, which is looking to change attitudes and emphasise that it is a sector in which it is possible to have a career, not just a job.
• Improve, which emphasises the importance of work by employers to raise the attractiveness of work and careers in the industry.
• Pro-skills, which argues that although staff turnover is 5% per annum, suggesting people like working in the sector find it rewarding and stay there, it is not seen as attractive by young people.
• e-skills UK, which sees ‘establishing work in IT as an aspirational career choice for high achievers’.
• Skillset, which stresses the need not to over promote vocational media qualifications.

Advice and Guidance is particularly important for the Lifelong Learning sector, which is working with partners in other skills sectors to determine where it can most effectively add value.

Getting employers engaged with schools to raise the profile and attractiveness of the sector is seen as an important activity by a number of SSCs, although the need for IAG is not seen as limited to young people. Skillset, for example, sees the provision of an industry-specific IAG service for adults who are either in or seeking to enter the sector as a priority. EU skills is concerned about a growing shortage of technical and engineering graduates and the high proportion of these graduates who are attracted to industries outside the scope of their training, like financial services. Five sectors see improving labour market intelligence about employment in the sector as an important part of a response. Promoting understanding of work in their sector, through visits to employers or employers running activities in schools, is widely advocated. It might be argued that promoting inter-sector competition to attract a shrinking school-age cohort amounts to a nil sum game. However, if this activity is focused on occupations or sectors (eg engineering) that are a priority for the South West and where there are acknowledged recruitment issues, it could be beneficial.

Conclusion

The need for an all-age IAG service is clear. It has emerged strongly from the sector analysis and the analysis underpinning young people.

The RSP should investigate the feasibility of an all-age IAG service in the region, including better online careers information based on the labour market information and progression pathways.