Earlier this week, thirty-one leaders from a variety of sectors met at the Caledonian Club. They discussed how the workforce has changed over the past few years and the resultant opportunities and challenges, with a specific emphasis placed on apprenticeships and the connection between education and industry.
The conversation began with the attendees being asked about recruitment.
Recruitment: pros and cons
A minority of the room said they had experienced difficulties hiring staff at some point in the past few months. One reason put forward for this was the desire from employees for flexible working, which it is not always possible for businesses to accommodate. This is something that seems to be widespread across a number of sectors and it was noted by one attendee who works internationally that this is a factor affecting recruitment in much of the world and not in anyway specific to Britain.
The international dimension of this new change working lives was highlighted by another attendee as a huge positive. An unexpected benefit of the ‘working from home revolution’ was that it had opened up recruitment possibilities and made it much easier to hire people who live many miles from where the business is based or even, as in this specific case, overseas.
Other attendees had similarly positive things to say about remote working. The flexibility it afforded allowed employees to feel less stressed and produce higher quality work. It was argued that businesses that embrace flexible working would be rewarded with a more dynamic workforce, while those that did not would be left behind.
Overall, there was broad support for remote working among those whose organisations could operate mostly online. But this enthusiasm was not shared by those who relied on in-person work.
A number of attendees said that recruiting electricians, plumbers and other skilled manual workers is harder than ever, with the new immigration rules only making this more difficult.
Trades and apprenticeships
At this point the discussion moved onto apprenticeships and, again, there were positive and negative stories to tell. However it would be fair to say that the latter outweighed the former.
It was argued that apprenticeships should provide a clear route for learning a trade but that this was not playing out. Most small firms are unable to pay a living wage to their apprentices which means viable candidates opt for jobs in supermarkets or retail or don’t enter the workforce at all. This is despite the fact that filling the shortfalls in these sectors would have obvious benefits across the economy and that it would also provide young people with a means of earning significantly above the average wage as they develop in their career.
One attendee expressed support in principle for the apprenticeship levy (a 0.5% fee paid by all companies with a wage bill above £3 million which is set aside for the training of apprentices) but was mostly disappointed with how it has actually been used. This was echoed by a number of people around the room.
A number of flaws were pointed out. One being that certain colleges and companies are more interested in accessing the money contained in the levy rather than training apprentices. This means there is a small but not insignificant culture of people looking for ways to exploit the system and widen to breaking-point the definitions of both ‘apprentice’ and ‘training’.
There were also robust critiques of BTecs and NVQs, and the sense of requiring young people to prioritise academic skills they would never use over practical skills that would greatly assist them in their work. Conversely, at least one attendee felt that too many people were entering the workforce without basic literacy and numeracy skills and that the burden was falling on employers to step in where educators had failed. It was also pointed out that more than eleven million people lack the digital skills needed for everyday life.*
Connection with education
In light of the above, it is perhaps no surprise that the link between education and employment came in for a great deal of criticism.
One attendee said that the problem was at least in part caused by the fact that schools and colleges were not incentivised to get people into apprenticeships nor were they really judged on their record of getting people into employment. Rather everything was directed towards universities. It was therefore no surprise that we were seeing a dearth of young people taking up a trade.
At this point, the argument was made that it had been a historic mistake to usher fifty percent of the population towards university. But another attendee said that this would make little difference. There was still half of the population who did not attend university and we should focus on establishing viable career paths for these people rather than reducing the numbers who pursue an academic route.
The case was also made that schools have to fund career advise out of their own budgets and that this has therefore taken a huge knock in recent years. The days when most secondary schools would be able to offer careers advice are long gone, which is perhaps another reason for the apparent disconnect between education and industry.
And as long as this disconnect remains, it is unlikely that many young people will be persuaded to pick up a trade. The long term gains of pursuing a career as a plumber or an electrician are clear and provable. Not only does this provide a valuable and sustainable skill, it also provides a great basis for those with an entrepreneurial mindset to set up their own companies.
Moreover, with an eye on the future, these are exactly the jobs that are least at threat, from AI and other emergent technology, and are therefore one of the safest bets when it comes to providing young people with a viable career for life.
Building a career pathway for life
The idea of providing a career for life struck a chord with a number of people around the table.
This is a much harder challenge than it used to be, given the rapidly changing nature of the workforce of today. We used to be relatively confident of the sorts of jobs that would be around when schoolchildren entered the workforce. Now this is no longer the case.
At this point it was revealed that a recent poll has suggested that only 8% of workers in the UK report being engaged by their work**, which emphasised the need to provide young people with a clear and compelling vision of their work life to come.
And if there was one regret from the meeting it is the fact that we did not get to explore this area in greater detail. How will the nature of work change over the coming decade? What opportunities and challenges do today’s business leaders anticipate?
We did have some interesting interventions on this topic, with attendees mentioning the renewable sector and the benefits of increased diversity but sadly we ran out of time before these issues could be properly fleshed out.
Luckily this roundtable was very much the beginning of the discussion and there will be plenty of time to build upon it in our forthcoming special report.
If you'd like to take part in any of our future roundtables or special reports, please get in touch: https://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/apply
