How well are the skills needs of employers in Northern Ireland being met? Lesley Giles, Deputy Director UK Commission for Employment and Skills DEL lunchtime seminar 16 th January 2014

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What does the UK Commission for Employment and Skills do? Commissioner Insights Delivering Investment Research and Intelligence Our ambition is to transform the United Kingdom’s approach to investing in the skills of people as an intrinsic part of securing growth

Skills matter, skills play a vital role in performance What’s the value of skills? Firms in the UK that don’t invest in training, are on average... Twice as likely to fail And this varies by sector... Manufacturing Construction Hotels and Restaurants Retail and Wholesale Transport and Comms Likelihood of business failure 2x 4x 9x

Are businesses investing wisely in skills? Are skills needs being met? There are 59,700 businesses with a headcount of 1+ across Northern Ireland. Of which... 41% do not train (0.9 million) Of those who do train: 9% Do not know if they want to do more Would like to do more training Do sufficient training to meet needs No training need Perceived need but met barriers Of those who do not train: Key Challenge: Training investment is declining in real terms, and only 19% of UK businesses are adopting High Performance Working practices, is this ambitious enough? 63% train 37% do not train 15%22% 31% 23% Source: UKCESS 2011; Note: Figures relating to whether those who train and would like to do more training come from the skills equilibrium follow up survey, this survey covers employers with 2 or more working proprietors and no employees as well as employers with 1+ employees.

Is skills investment of sufficient quality? What’s the shape of the training market? Across Northern Ireland £1.36 BILLION is spent on training, however: 6 £805 million is on direct costs of training £558 million is the wages of those being trained these direct costs include… £76 million was counted as fees to external providers for courses £228 million was spent on training management £221 million was spent on training centres* £235 million went on the wages of trainers providing on the job training Source: UKCESS 2011, Investment in Training Survey * Training centres either on-site or off-site within the same company

Pockets of skills deficiencies persist and are growing Between 2008 and 2011 there was a small increase in vacancies in Northern Ireland. This was primarily driven by micro businesses (1-4), where the number of vacancies per employee increased almost three-fold. 7 Number of vacancies per employee by employer size in Northern Ireland However, while larger businesses (50+) experienced a fall in their vacancies, their skills shortage vacancies increased. Percentage of vacancies that were skills shortage vacancies by employer size in Northern Ireland Source: UK Employer Skills Survey 2011, Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008; Vacancy base: all establishments in Northern Ireland within each size band; Skills-shortage vacancy base: all establishments with vacancies within each size band.

Persistent skills deficiencies impact on NI firms There are opportunities to exploit business benefits 8 Source: UKCESS 2011; Base: Employers in Northern Ireland with skills shortage vacancies (124 unweighted), Employers in Northern Ireland with skills gaps (618 unweighted)

Are skills programmes being sufficiently used? From two markets for skills to one UKNorthern Ireland Any private4039 Commercial3534 Third sector/not for profit 1113 Any public14 FE College1211 HEI67 Proportion of all employers using public or private training providers Source: UK Commission’s Employer Perspectives Survey 22% Of employee’s trained were training towards a qualification

Are skills programmes being sufficiently used? In total 6% of employers in Northern Ireland have apprentices currently on site and a further 7% offer them but don’t currently have any Source: UKCEPS; Base: All Northern Ireland employers

Are there sufficient career opportunities for young people? yr olds leaving school yr olds leaving FE Young people leaving HE 47% 26% Most businesses found education leavers well prepared for work (with preparedness increasing with age) The minority of employers report issues with education leavers. The two key issues were: Experience of world of work Poor attitude/ Personality Across Northern Ireland, 28% of businesses had recruited education leavers in the past 2-3 yrs. 16 yr olds 53% 35%65% 74% 80%20%

Base: 2 to 4 (221), 5 to 9 (230), 10 to 24 (224), 25 to 99 (219), 100+ (106) Source: UKCEPS; Base: Primary (55), Manufacturing (67), Construction (84),Trade (341), Business (208), Non-market services (245) By size By sector Work experience – a rare commodity The extent to which placements are offered to young people by size and sector

Sectors matter to skills investment A key basis to develop strong collaborations When we look at investment in training provided by employers across different sectors, there is considerable variation: Mining & Quarrying15% Agriculture47% Construction51% Transport & Communications54% Electricity, Gas & Water54% Manufacturing54% Community, Social & Personal Services57% Hotels & Restaurants60% Wholesale & Retail60% Business Services76% Finance Services76% Health & Social Work83% Education91% Public Administration92% SectorPercentage doing training

Future skills considerations Informing plans for growth in the economy 14 Our latest Working Futures report shows that business services are expected to continue to be a key engine of growth in Northern Ireland 14 Forecast output and employment by broad sector for Northern Ireland Source: Working Futures

Investment Funds Employer Investment Fund (UK) Growth & Innovation Fund (England) Employer Ownership Pilot (England) EIF & GIF Investment so far investments £111m UKCES £103m employer EO Pilot investment so far investments £102m UKCES £98m employer Leveraging investment: Employer Ownership of skills “We want to encourage employers to take the lead in designing, developing and delivering the training and employment solutions they need.” Charlie Mayfield, Chairman UK Commission for Employment and Skills

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