The UK is experiencing a major skills shortage. The Open University’s Business Barometer for 2021 found that two thirds (63%) of businesses are struggling to recruit candidates with the right skills, and a quarter (24%) consider finding the right employees the single biggest challenge their organisation faces. This deficit in skills is proving a huge detriment to the economy, with a report by the Learning & Work Institute estimating it could risk economic output of £120 billion by 2030.
There are a number of reasons why the UK is facing this skills gap; covid and Brexit are key contributors but it’s also driven by the acceleration of tech. The speed at which technology is advancing is having a knock-on impact across nearly all industries and the necessary workplace experience and skills employers seek is changing and developing at an unprecedented rate. Gartner research found that more than half (58%) of the workforce will need new skills to enable them to continue to do their job successfully, and identified that the skills listed in the average 2017 job posting for IT, finance and sales, are already obsolete.
