Letter from Ross
Dear Readers,
Among many things, the global economic crisis has highlighted a growing gap between the academic supply and the workplace demand. Whether it is new joiners or more experienced staff, employers are finding missing leadership, teamwork, creativity, and innovation skills. As a result, these gaps in behavioural qualities present employers with difficulties in hiring, training and development, irrespective of experience level.
This month’s newsletter shifts focus to the skills needed to work in today’s ever-evolving workplace. Instead of task-orientated abilities that were needed generations prior, employers are increasingly looking for specific soft skills that enable workers to adapt to the changing workforce demands.
But how do you gauge an individual’s leadership skills, teamwork ability or creativity based on the interview process alone? As one Brazilian employer stated during our first round of EEE research, “Everyone says they’re very keen!”
As the skills need evolves, so should the qualifications system. Certainly, many countries across the world have made significant progress in adopting effective qualifications systems when it comes to hard skills; however, soft skills certifications are falling behind employers’ needs.
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On the Ground
By Amanda WoodEdexcel embarked upon the EEE project in 2008, as a means to identify education’s compatibility with workplace demands. Among the myriad of themes identified in the initial EEE report, our researchers found that the skills gap topped employer concerns.
In Europe, one in three working-age citizens have few to no formal qualifications, making them 40 percent less likely to be employed than those with even medium qualifications. Even workers who have some sort of professional development often do not possess the kinds of skills employers are looking for.
More acute training, however, has the ability to help companies thrive and economies recover. According to the recent “New Skills for New Jobs” report, companies that do not train their staff are 2.5 times more likely to go out of business than entities that provide workforce training programs.
Additionally, the report continues to say education systems that provide students with adequate workplace skills could increase a country’s GDP by as much as 10 percent. This is where Edexcel’s second round of research has focused on – what skills are needed in the workforce? Where is there a shortage? Where is there a demand?
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Issues that Matter
In a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.A.), supervisors at Ben Venue Laboratories, a contract drug maker for pharmaceutical companies, have reviewed 3,600 job applications throughout the course of 2010. Of the thousands of applicants, just 47 individuals had the correct qualifications for the available just-above-entry-level jobs, according to the New York Times. While the state’s unemployment sits at 10.7 percent, this Ohio-based company struggles to fill its 100 available positions, as too many of the applicants have failed even basic skills tests (i.e., they need to be literate and have a ninth-grade understanding of math).
In a 2009 survey of 779 industrial companies, 32 percent of respondents reported “moderate to serious” skills shortages. Some industries found even greater concerns regarding the skills gap. For example, 63 percent of life science companies and 45 percent of energy firms cited such shortages.
“The new worker of tomorrow is in about sixth grade,” said John Gajewski, executive director of the advance manufacturing, engineering and apprenticeship program at a Cleveland community college. “And they need training to move into manufacturing.”
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The Month Ahead
22 - 27 August - The 36th International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) Conference 2010, Ambassador Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. For more information please visit http://www.iaea2010.com/.25 - 28 August - European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), University of Helsinki , Helsinki, Finland. For more information please visit http://www.helsinki.fi/ecer2010/ or contact ecer2010@eera.eu.
28 August - 01 September - IEASA (International Education Association of South Africa) 14th Annual Conference, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. For more information please visit http://web.wits.ac.za/NewsRoom/Conferences/ieasa2010 or contact info.ieasa2010@wits.ac.za.
What employers are saying...
“I do not think manufacturing can come back to what it was before the recession.” –Christina D. Romer, chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors, who noted the skills shortages stem largely from a long-term structural shift in manufacturing. (New York Times)“Irrespective of the business models they adopt in response to ongoing global change, the war for talent remains a key concern among CEOs worldwide, ranking second only to a potential economic downturn as the biggest threat to business growth.” - Employer, Brazil (Edexcel Research)
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By the Numbers
"In the UK, teenagers dropping out of school, training and work has risen by 40 percent since the start of the recession.""Just over 9% of young people with Level 3 qualifications, which include A-levels, were classed as NEET – not in education, employment or training – in the second quarter of 2010, up from 6.4% in the first quarter of 2008."
SOURCE: Wales Online
