A GROWING skills gap in Scotland will leave businesses unable to recruit the employees they need over the next few years, they have claimed.
Almost two-thirds of firms north of the Border have voiced concerns about a lack of sufficiently skilled applicants coming through their doors, with many saying new employees fail to have the right attitude or “resilience” to succeed.
The shortage is being felt across many sectors.
including technology, construction, and hospitality, and business chiefs have warned of the need for “Scotland-specific” solutions to the problem as the country grapples with an ageing workforce.
A total of 120 companies in Scotland were questioned as part of a UK-wide survey by Pearson UK and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
Just over three-quarters said they expect their need for “high-level skills” – including qualifications, employability skills and industry knowledge – to increase in the next three to five years. However, 59 per cent are concerned that candidates will not meet their requirements.
Most businesses were positive about graduate applicants’ basic skills and general readiness for employment, however just under half were not satisfied with their graduate hires’ business and customer awareness, while 33 per cent were dissatisfied with their attitude, behaviour and resilience.
Meanwhile, 28 per cent of employers were also dissatisfied with the amount of practical work experience their graduate recruits had gained prior to landing jobs with them.
John-Paul Toner, operations director at Contract Scotland, a construction industry recruitment specialist, said clients were reporting skills shortages, adding: “This shortage exists within a number of areas in the sector and was maybe hidden by the downturn."
He said that areas where recruitment could be difficult included design, engineering and construction and commercial support roles.
Mr Toner added: “In these area it’s sometimes not particularly easy to find the applicants our clients are looking for.
“It’s a problem that’s independent of Brexit. We have an ageing workforce and the numbers are not coming in to replace the numbers that are leaving or retiring.
“Construction has suffered from being stereotyped to a certain extent, and people just think it’s a job with dirty boots, high-viz vests and hard hats. That has maybe put people off joining the industry in the past, but it is something that a lot of effort has gone into changing and we’re beginning to see that bear fruit.”
Newell McGinness, managing director of Scotland’s electrical contracting industry trade association Select, said: “There’s undoubtedly a latent skills shortage in the electrical engineering industry because it recruited between 1,000 and 1,200 a year apprentices a year in the 1960s and 1970s .
“That generation is coming to the end of its working life and we’re not recruiting anything like that now. This year we’ll take on 750 apprentice electricians.”
Most firms said the quality of careers advice given to young people was not good enough, with 82 per cent stating they would be prepared to play a greater role in supporting schools and colleges in improving this service.
Roxanne Stockwell, principal of Pearson College London, said their study should be a “wake up call” for higher education She added: “There is clearly potential for the higher education sector and businesses to work more closely together and deliver degrees that are designed and delivered in partnership with the world of work in mind.”
Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, highlighted the importance of foundation apprenticeships to ensure a pipeline of young talent to enter the workforce, but more is needed to be done.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel