Page 23 - Neath Port Talbot Skills Report 2024
P. 23
Labour Market
At the macroeconomic level, the county has
barely sufficient workforce to deliver the
projects already underway without factoring in
new emerging industries
Offshore energy and the commerce that
freeports will provide has estimated up to
16,000 jobs will be created.
The region already has:
• Low unemployment rate
• High retirement risk
• Talent drain
• Declining birth numbers
Mobility of Workforce
Rising fuel, insurance and vehicle costs, presents
a problem given some parts of the region being
rural for workforce mobility. Knock on effects to::
• Recruitment and retention
• Younger people unable to afford
transportation
• More demand for home working
• Risk of losing skills where better
remote working packages offered
• Talent drain issue could rapidly get
worse
• Education and Learners
• Difficulty getting to and from
education institutions
• Requirement of more eLearning and
blended learning options
Barriers to the objectives
Filling the retirement hole
• 5-15 age group is around 12% less than
the 55-64 group,
• (69%) of SMEs currently facing skills
shortages and 70% stating this causes
increased workload on current staff
New report: The Business Barometer 2023 |
Open University
Core Economy Industry Perceptions
Perceptions of local industry by the future
workforce is also of concern, with
Construction, Manufacturing, Health Care
not deemed to be a valid career pathway for
many younger people in education.
23
Digital Skills
The innovation that the Freeports will bring
will certainly require new digital skill sets.
However digital skills are still not taught in a
consistent way in many schools across the
Freeport regions, even though an entire
generation has grown up in a fully
connected digital world. This could be due
to:
• Teacher and educator skill shortages on
digital subjects
• Lack of syllabus clarity
• Fast changing pace of digital