Page 67 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan 2019

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Challenges
It comes as no surprise that ‘economic/financial challenges and reduced funding’ was reported as the most common challenge experienced by the public services sector. Since 2009 local government in Wales has seen cuts of almost £1bn, which has resulted in the loss of jobs and changes to services offered.
In addition, recruitment and developing staff are further challenges, followed by succession planning and retention.
The Workforce
The workforce is characterised by many factors as detailed in the recently published report; the ‘Public Sector in Wales’:
• Between 2005-06 and 2017-18, the number of full-time equivalent teachers declined by 2,493 while the number of teaching assistants increased by 9,336.
• Women are 28 times more likely to be employed as a teaching assistant in the primary sector than men.
• The share of qualified male teachers and teaching assistants fell from 25% in 2005-06 to 18.8% in 2017-18.
• In the same year, 79,916 people were employed in NHS Wales’ local health boards and trusts.
• Spending on agency staff in the NHS has nearly doubled since 2009-10.
• The number of Welsh Government employees fell by 534 (9.6%) between 2014-15 and 2017-18. Spending on salaries as a share of employee costs has fallen from 75.7% to 73.4% between 2014-15 and 2017-18.69
Work-readiness
Over 51% of respondents indicated that they feel that the level of work readiness of new entrants varies with 18% indicating that they feel new entrants are not work ready at all. The desired levels of skills and work experience were reported by the majority as the biggest omissions.
Skills Challenges
23 respondents indicated that they are experiencing skills challenges in the following occupational areas:
• Managers, directors and senior officials,
• Professional occupations,
• Associate professionals and technical occupations,
• Caring, leisure and other service occupations,
• Skilled trades occupations.
‘Specialist skills or knowledge needed to perform the role’ were reported as being the most significant skills gap by 61% of respondents. This was followed by ‘advanced or specialist IT skills’ (38%) and ‘communi- cation skills’ (35%).
Digital skills are a key consideration for organisations operating within this sector. The cluster group would like to see the development of digital solutions that would encompass all areas within the sector with organisations willing to encompass these new ways of working and not to be so risk averse.
An analysis70 of the top hard and soft skills required by employers within the sector recruiting between January 2018 -2019 corroborate the findings overleaf;
69 The Public Sector in Wales Report – Cardiff University 70 RLSP analysis of EMSI Job Posting Analytics
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales
Sector Profiles