Page 33 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan

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The Work-Readiness of New Entrants to the Sector
Just over half of those employers engaged with reported that new entrants to the sector that have only recently left school or college are not work ready. Many employers try to limit the likelihood of employing such an individual with a recruitment process that is thorough and specifically designed to identify such traits.
The most commonly reported skills that are associated with work-readiness for these companies are soft skills39, literacy and numeracy skills and a good work ethic; ‘Resolve, a proper work-ethic and far-improved basic skills (literacy, numeracy and communication skills), so a mixture of basic skills and culture.’
Contributory factors to these issues include the lack of work experience available to these entrants whilst learning which is then worsened by the nature of provision offered by schools and colleges – with some of it not being fit for purpose or specialist enough. As a result some employers resort to internal training;
‘Individuals without work experience can lack some of the soft skills. Due to the nature of our machine shop internal training is necessary with colleges not offering training specific to all areas of the engineering sector. Focus tends to be on skills which can more easily be taught i.e. does not require expensive resource.’
Evidence from the cluster groups also suggests that there is a cultural divide between the education environment and the workplace with new entrants struggling to adapt to the longer hours and high levels of scrutiny. This has been highlighted as an area of competitiveness with some countries having longer and more intensive educational timetables.
Numeracy, Literacy and ICT Skills
Close to quarter of those employers engaged with felt that their workforce did not possess the required numeracy, literacy and ICT skills needed to fulfil their roles;
‘Even degree level employees come in with poor spelling, grammar and punctuation, especially against foreign associates for whom English is a second language! As for literacy, almost no one under the age of 35 can manage basic mental arithmetic, let alone properly understand ratios, percentages, calculating margins, etc. We have to teach our administrators basic maths in their first months here.’
The evidence also indicates that whilst some employers reported that their workforce does possess the desired competence in numeracy, literacy and ICT there are instances where the level of competence is highly dependent on the level of academic achievement of a given individual.
A few of the employers reporting no short-fall in competence whatsoever indicated that they have stringent recruitment procedures which ensure these skills are present in individuals to the desired level.
‘Assured by selective recruitment procedures which predicate a required standard of literacy, numeracy and ICT according to the job role. The apprentices acquire these skills within their frameworks, and, where necessary, we provide additional support to ensure that they meet the standard required’
39 The Collins English Dictionary defines this term as ‘desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people and a positive flexible attitude.’
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales Sector Profiles