Meeting the skills imperative

This article was first published in the Edge Foundation’s Skills Shortages Bulletin on the 29th October. 
 
The labour market is changing at an accelerating rate.

Previous research for The Skills Imperative 2035 showed new technologies, coupled with major demographic and environmental changes, will continue to disrupt the labour market, changing the jobs that exist and the skills needed to do these jobs.  

Based on our employment projections, we previously suggested that over a million jobs in declining occupations could be lost between 2021 and 2035. But new analysis suggests that the reduction in the number of jobs in ‘high-risk’ occupations has been greater than we projected in 2021. If this trend continues through to 2035, there could be between one and three million fewer jobs in these ‘high-risk’ occupations.   

These changes create both opportunities and threats  

Changes in employment are characterised by ‘occupational upgrading’ - growth in higher skilled, generally better paid occupations (e.g., professionals and associate professionals) and decline in most low- and mid-skilled occupations (e.g., administrators, sales, and elementary occupations). This trend is not new – it can be traced back to the early 2000s – but it is now occurring at a rate not seen before.

This creates more opportunities for highly skilled and qualified individuals to access well-paid work, but it also carries threats for workers in declining occupations who lack the skills and qualifications to transition. So too for young people who leave education with low skills and few qualifications and are poorly placed to enter growing occupations. Without action, inequalities in society are likely to widen. 

Meeting the skills imperative  

We are not bystanders as these changes take place. Government, employers, the education system, and individuals all play a role in influencing the direction and pace of change.

To minimise the costs of disruption, greater focus should be placed on supporting more existing workers in high-risk occupations to reskill and change careers, and on ensuring more young people leave education with both the qualifications and skills they need to compete for entry-level roles in high growth areas of the economy.

Overall, we need to develop a system of lifelong learning which nurtures the development of individuals’ skills throughout early childhood, education and work. This will involve both supply-side measures (that support individuals’ skill development throughout all life stages) and demand-side factors (that influence employers’ demand for, development of, and utilisation of, skills).  

To support young people to progress into high-skilled growing occupations, we need to ensure they leave education with the technical knowledge and skills required in these occupations, and a strong base of the Essential Employment Skills (EES) needed to thrive. EES are transferable or foundational skills that complement technical, job-specific skills, and include problem solving, communication, collaboration, and thinking critically and creatively.

The government needs to signal to educators that these skills are valued and follow this up by promoting a common skills framework that schools and colleges can use to benchmark and track students’ progress against clearly defined age- and stage-related expectations.

The technical knowledge and skills requirements of growing professional jobs – for example jobs as engineers and doctors – also reinforce the importance of there being a coherent and established network of higher education learning pathways into these occupations for young people of all backgrounds.

Turning to adults, a key government priority should be reinvigorating the adult skills system after more than a decade of decline. Employers also need to play their part in supporting their current workers to assess and develop their skills, fully utilise these skills in the workplace, and transition between roles where appropriate.   

In the upcoming Skills Imperative 2035 final report, we elaborate on the challenge now and ahead as well as the response needed to effectively meet this challenge. It is due to be published on the 25th of November, when we will also be hosting a free launch event in Central London.