Page 61 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan 2019

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The qualifications and courses offered to people who wish to develop their career in care have been subject of a review by Qualifications Wales. The findings have been welcomed by Social Care Wales and the wider sector as highlighting key challenges which need to be tackled, namely:
• the effectiveness of the present models of assessment in determining the knowledge, skills and understanding of learners;
• the currency of some qualifications, particularly those qualifications taken by learners aged 14-16;
• the extent to which qualifications prepared learners for progression to higher education;
• the coverage of certain key aspects of learning for different areas of work, for example in relation to dementia
care, domiciliary care and play work in the context of childcare; and
• the extent to which qualifications prepared learners effectively for working in a bilingual nation.63
Skills Challenges
The majority of respondents indicated that they are not experiencing skills challenges, however 47% reported that they are within caring, leisure and other service occupations (73%), professional occupations (20%) and managers, directors and senior officials (10%).
The most commonly reported skills gaps were:
• Specialist skills or knowledge needed to perform the role (62%),
• Oral Welsh language skills (39%),
• Writing instructions, guidelines, manuals or reports (28%),
• Written language skills (28%),
• Communication skills (28%).
An analysis64 of the top hard and soft skills required by employers within the sector recruiting between Jan- uary 2018 -2019 corroborate these findings;
Top Hard Skills
Nursing Management Health care Clinical works
Top Soft Skills
Mental health Leadership Listening Literacy Speech Ethics
63 https://qualificationswales.org/media/1904/hsc-report-2016-e.pdf
64 RLSP analysis of EMSI Job Posting Analytics
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales
Sector Profiles