Business News

Dorset experiencing above UK average skills shortages

It’s been well documented that the business community across the country has been hit hard by the global pandemic but as the economy emerges from the shadows of the pandemic, there is a new threat to British business – the skills shortage.

Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) have recently published their ambition that by 2038, Dorset’s workforce will be ‘highly productive, aspirational and agile so that the talents of all contribute to prosperity, well-being and innovation’ but how exactly will that plan take shape? The continuously emerging effects of the pandemic on local employment, business recovery and availability of skills has made this ambition more of a priority than ever for business leaders.

Dorset LEP’s own research through Insight surveys demonstrates an exponential growth in employer demand over the second quarter of this year when the economy opened up with over 20,500 vacancies advertised in Dorset. However, as reported recently by the BBC, employers widely complain of significant recruitment challenges and skills gaps, stifling their recovery at this critical time. Yet even more puzzling is that ‘out of work’ levels in Dorset are stubbornly twice as high as those seen prior to the pandemic. The Local Skills Report, published earlier this year by the Local Enterprise Partnership highlighted that despite having world-class educational providers at their fingertips, businesses in Dorset experience serious skills shortages, creating barriers for local economic growth:

Dorset ranked among the top three LEP areas for the proportions of hard-to-fill and skills shortage vacancies reported by employers, with 61% of Dorset employers having had at least one vacancy that was hard to fill (national average 44%) and 50% of all vacancies being hard-to-fill (national average 36%).

One-third of all vacancies were related to skills shortages, with manufacturing and engineering, healthcare, chefs and other hospitality and professional services roles, i.e. accounting, finance and legal, all highlighted as hard to fill.

Only a quarter of Dorset employers engaged with colleges and even fewer (14%) worked with universities to meet their skills needs. Local employers reported issues with accessibility and responsiveness of educational provision and barriers to productive collaborations.

How can Dorset address the skills shortage?

There are already a number of initiatives in place to try to stem the skills shortage in our area and Dorset LEP have committed to continue to facilitate and encourage productive business-education collaborations such as;

1Dorset Skills Advisory Panel & Board, which brings together key stakeholders from business, local authorities and learning providers in Dorset. This will help shape the future skills solutions required for Dorset’s local economy to recover, aspire and thrive in the future.

2Dorset Careers Hub has been pivotal in continuing to bring employers, schools and colleges together to transform careers education. As one of the leading careers hubs in the UK, Dorset Careers Hub is now supporting over 75 schools across the county including special educational needs schools. Working with a growing number of cornerstone employers, Dorset Careers Hub has recently managed to deliver a successful virtual work experience programme providing over 1000 students with much needed exposure to the world of work throughout the pandemic. Through a series of Dorset Careers Live events it is helping young people to navigate their career options including apprenticeships, work experience schemes and graduate programmes within key local sectors.

3Labour Market Information (LMI) Workshops – these tailored workshops explore labour market demand in Dorset and reveal industry, occupations, salary, automation and education trends in Dorset and its key established and growth sectors. They are designed with training providers and showcase the Dorset LEP Labour Market and Skills Research interactive dashboards and tools and help to align skills provision with the employer needs in Dorset. Workshops were well received recently by Job Centre Plus work coaches and Skills & Learning Adult Community Education tutors.

4Staying Local Workshops – these workshops are aimed at students from local universities and colleges that are about to enter the job market and provide fresh insights into the currently available job opportunities in Dorset and the skills needs of local employers.

Developing future growth skills as a strategic priority for Dorset

Dorset LEP are pursuing ‘growth cluster’ collaborations and business – education links to:

Understand and resolve skills mismatches at local level.

Remove barriers for businesses and make high quality educational institutions, talent and skills they need more readily accessible. Provide clear and attractive labour market information and local career pathways to attract and retain talent in Dorset.

As well as the workshops mentioned previously, the LEP are also organising shows and events to showcase Dorset as a desirable place to work. Examples of this include: The Careers and Apprenticeship Show 2021

Organised by Dorset LEP and its careers hub in partnership with 12 organisations across Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey, the virtual show attracted 60 exhibitors and over 20,000 students to their virtual booths to benefit from 20 live careers talks, 30 pre-recorded careers sessions and hundreds of downloadable resources highlighting local careers. Advancing Dorset’s Defence, Security and Innovation

A virtual preview of Dorset’s Defence BattleLab at the Dorset Innovation Park, this event also offered its over 70 attendants an overview of a range of business support initiatives for Dorset’s SMEs working in the defence and security sector, funding opportunities and industry engagement programmes from Bournemouth University and Arts University Bournemouth. Looking for Talent for the Future?

A partnership event between Bournemouth University, BCP Council and the Dorset Engineering and Manufacturing Cluster, this virtual experience sharing meetup, aimed at Dorset-based businesses looking to provide placement opportunities and retain highly skilled graduates locally, gave an insight into the shared experiences of employers, students and engagement officers offering work experience stories and perspectives.

Find out more and get involved

Local businesses willing to collaborate for skills in Dorset and who are interested in finding out about apprenticeships or building relationships with one of Dorset’s further or higher education establishments/training providers, can visit www.dorsetlep.co.uk/business-education-links to explore local opportunities or visit Dorset Gateway www.dorsetlep.co.uk/dorset-gateway and make an enquiry at the top of the page. The enquiry form allows you to tell the specialist skills brokerage service about your requirements and the challenges you face and they will put together an action plan to support your needs. Educational providers interested in a LMI workshop and learning more about the labour market, needs of local employers and future skills developments, get in touch with Dorset LEP’s Skills Analyst by emailing mkoseva@ bournemouth.ac.uk.