Understanding business needs is vital to bridging the skills gap
Understanding business needs is vital to bridging the skills gap and addressing the concerns of the region 's employers, according to the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce 's (GBCC) Quarterly Business Report briefing which took place this week, writes Claudia Congrave.
The Quarterly Business Report (QBR) offers an up-to-date snapshot of the performance of the Greater Birmingham business community and was debated online yesterday in the QBR Briefing Breakfast, supported by Birmingham City University.
The QBR for Q3 revealed that “positive sentiment ” is coursing through the veins of Greater Birmingham businesses as they recover from the pandemic, aside from remaining concerns around staff shortages, inflation, increasing competition and supply chain disruptions.
The full report can be found here
Clare Hatton (pictured), head of skills delivery at the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Matt Burling, divisional director at SF Executive, painted a clear picture of the current skills landscape and informed businesses of the part they must play in bridging the post-pandemic skills gap in Greater Birmingham.
Clare explained that there are more people on unemployment benefits in the West Midlands than pre-pandemic, despite the increase in job vacancies and business 's uptake of the Kickstart Scheme.
According to colleges and training providers, whilest interest in careers in the civil service and construction has improved, there has been a significant reduction in people pursuing careers in the care sector.
Addressing the connection that might be drawn between the number of vacancies and the number of people unemployed, Clare said: “The number of universal credit claimants is stubbornly high, but we have to take into consideration those claimants who can 't work due to health concerns and those who are already working but don 't earn enough.
“Unfortunately, it 's not as simple as putting on lots of skills training for those people and there is much more to do collectively on our end in terms of understanding business needs.
“Some jobs can 't be trained for overnight, particularly when we 're talking about careers like nursing for example.
“So while it is important to train those who are unemployed and get them into the workforce, internal training for our existing workforce is also important when thinking about how we can progress people to roles where we have those skills shortages. ”
The WMCA has been allocated a £140 million adult education budget which they have already invested in improving English, Maths and basic skills required of job entry.
They have also increased the number of higher-level education courses as they anticipate the majority of jobs available in the next decade to recruit at level 3 and 4.
Clare finished by stressing: “Businesses saying that they can 't recruit because of skills issues isn 't hugely helpful and we would urge businesses to talk to us and explain what the skills issue actually is and how it can be fixed. ”
Acknowledging how the recruitment landscape has changed due to the pandemic, Matt Burling encouraged businesses to adapt their model for attracting and retaining talent, especially with candidates facing a much broader market of opportunities and prioritising employee flexibility and benefits in their job search.
He said: “I would suggest that some businesses aren 't doing enough to stand out as an attractive career destination. The market isn 't supporting just popping an ad out there and seeing what happens and the proactivity of seeing what you can do to make yourselves stand out is really important.
“We are, in a way, in a war for talent at the moment and you have to be on the front foot as a hiring business to be able to secure the people that you want. ”