By silicon.com, 17 March 2004 18:00
It has become clear today that one person's 'situation vacant' is another's 'skills crisis'.
The government claims low unemployment and a large number of unfilled vacancies is a sign of a healthy labour market and therefore a good thing - and it would be if all the people still out of work slotted in perfectly to those jobs, but sadly they don't.
So on one hand you could say the UK work force is spoilt for choice, but realistically and slightly less optimistically we may have to concede that really the UK is ill-equipped to develop, especially in highly skill-dependent fields such as IT.
You could almost liken it to a restaurant with no customers boasting about the near-100 per cent real-term growth potential.
And the government today dashed any hopes of a turnaround in this state of affairs when it failed to announce any new tax breaks or further incentives for companies retraining the UK workforce - a measure which would have started bridging the skills gap.
The extent of that skills gap, according to e-Skills UK, puts dissatisfaction with staff training within UK companies at 57 per cent - meaning, in short, that more than half the UK's employers don't think their staff 'cut the mustard'.
Richard Barrington, head of government affairs and public policy at Sun Microsystems, was certainly unimpressed with the news from Number 11.
"I think they missed a chance here. We need a lot of training and re-training to keep up the UK skills base," he told silicon.com.
We couldn't agree more, but as long as the government equates empty seats with opportunity we'll remain waiting for an improvement.
Comments
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1. anonymous
It just shows how much the government are out of touch (pretending that all is rosy) and are not planning for the future (that they are not thinking about how best to help UK plc promote to other countries by providing training required to the workforce).
As someone who has over 20 years experience in the IT industry, it makes me so angry that I am not able to get a job in the industry. This just shows me that the government do not care. They will not be getting my vote next year.
2. Christoper Slater-Walker
You can't place all the blame for this either on the government or on employers.
On the one hand, employers have always been able to offset training costs against tax, but even so, getting any training out of UK employers is like getting blood out of a stone (and I should know since I've been through so many of them. I might add that foreign, including US, employers, have quite a different attitude). They seem to think that they can install new technologies and magically, support staff know all about it.
On the other hand, training benefits not only employers and employees, so some kind of encouragement from the government might help to get things moving.
3. Alfred Reading
I think the unemployed can blame both Government and employers for shortsightedness. As a retired engineer I have seen the end of levies which used to ensure funding in various industries for skills training and employers have generally not filled the gap. I served an apprenticeship in the post-war years and was subsidised to study at evening classes but few can get such training now.
4. anonymous
I would like to know where all these magnificent 'telecommunications engineering and/or management' vacancies are. Try getting a decent job at 60. Many individuals in this age group have all the experience, skills and qualifications coming out of their ears and would be happy to do most anything within the telecommunications industry provide that the remuneration is at least a bit above the minimum wage. There are many individuals in the UK within the over 50’s age group who cannot get a decent job.
What I see in the job centre and employment agencies around the Midlands are a lot of part time or temporary job vacancies with very low remuneration, but not much more.
I personally have to work away from home to ensure I have employment.
The government are so intent on congratulating themselves that they cannot tell fact from fiction.
5. Chris Parsons
I agree totally with Anonymous that ageism is rife. I was made redundant 3 years ago at the age of 51 from the position of a development director. I have managed to get two interviews since, but no job offers. I scrape together a living fixing pcs. I am irritated not only because I am underperforming, but so are many like me, and it is costing the country dear. I can and would do anything from laying cables to managing projects, via programming in a variety of languages.
6. anonymous
The problems that the "matured" group have in finding gainful employment is bad enough. Spare a thought for the "younger" group either coming out of school or "further education".
If one analyse some of the adverts for job vacancies, there is no hope that some of these could ever be filled. Herein lies the problem. The government gloats over full employment and plenty of opportunities, however, they are just playing the political game. "Full" employment denotes plenty of female and young workers on either part time work or jobs that pay the bare minimum, i.e. minimum national wage of about £4 per hour or £160 for a 40 hour week (max £8k per annum). "Opportunities" denote job requirements more akin to "Einestein" types or someone with superhuman capabilities. The strangest part is that either you are not qualified or over qualified - so much for the job market.
As for the youngsters. Our education system is simply not geared for the job market - the worse is true for the university courses (literally worthless degress - just talk to any employer and see what they think of these nowadays).
What's left. There needs a total rethink on how the country has to get itself off it's feet. Existing workers need retraining and the school system needs a radical change to ensure those youngsters coming out would be capacable of taking on the jobs out there. Otherwise, we may end up with importing workers and employers not seeing the local workforce as something of value.