Page 65 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan 2019

Recruitment
47% of respondents indicated that they experience difficulty in recruiting for specific roles. Many indicated that seasonal and ‘out of hours’ roles were the most challenging to recruit, this aligns closely to the proliferation of those businesses indicating that seasonality was one of the most pressing challenges for them.
More specific indicated roles include;
• Chefs,
• Customer service occupations,
• Kitchen staff,
• Housekeepers,
• IT roles,
• HGV Drivers,
• Extreme sports instructors.
Job postings within this sector totalled 2,900 between January 2018 and January 2019. 380 of these were aligned directly to the Tourism and Leisure sector and the remaining 2,520 were aligned to the Hospitality sector. Median posting durations were higher for those in the Hospitality sector substantiating the primary evidence gathered by the RLSP indicating that the sector suffers from recruitment challenges.67
Barriers to Training
Inference of RLSP primary intelligence indicates that 39% of those surveyed within the sector are experiencing barriers to training. Time is clearly a significant barrier to training for many businesses with 53% indicating that they can’t spare staff time and a further 40% stating that they find it hard to find the time to organise the training. Furthermore, 46% reported that they lack the funds to train or that training is too expensive.
81% of businesses indicated that they are unaware of the funding programmes available to them for training. Further work needs to be done with the sector to promote any subsidised or fully funded training opportunities. Those that had an awareness reported that they were aware of Skills for Industry and the Skills Development Fund.
Apprenticeships
The vast majority (82%) of businesses reported that they do not employ apprentices. The reasons for this were numerous, however most commonly cited (49%) was that frameworks do not meet business needs. A further 26% stated that they are ‘unsure of the process in relation to offering one’.
It is evident from this that further work needs to be done in sign-posting businesses to relevant organisations. This will support in alleviating the misunderstanding around employing an apprentice and further promote employer involvement in the development of frameworks.
Brexit
There is clear uncertainty around Brexit and this causes significant challenges for businesses. For those op- erating in this sector, increased costs is a significant consideration, followed by exporting/importing difficul- ties. The uncertainty around how Brexit will affect visitor numbers is obviously concerning for the sector. In addition, a general sentiment is that people tend to spend less on ‘extras’ and ‘nice to haves’ in a climate of political uncertainty.
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67 RLSP Analysis of EMSI data
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales
Sector Profiles