Skills Gap
3.67 The National Employers Skills Survey measures hard to fill vacancies and skill shortage vacancies. South West England had relatively low levels of hard to fill vacancies and skills shortage vacancies which may partly explain the lower levels of earnings growth. A higher proportion of hard to fill vacancies would leave departing employees in a better bargaining position for wage increases but obviously would be problematic for business.
3.68 The results reveal that at 31%, the region had the third lowest rate of hard to fill vacancies as a percentage of all vacancies. The ‘overall rate’ was nearly 5% lower than the English average. Of the hard to fill vacancies, 57% reported skill shortages as the main reason for the vacancy. Skills shortage vacancies as a percentage of hard to fill vacancies were considerably lower than the national average of 70%. These comparatively low levels could be an indication of a skilled workforce which should benefit regional productivity.
3.69 Voluntary and Community Sector Skills Gaps and Recruitment Difficulties - Research 1 by the University of Plymouth for South West Forum’s Workforce Development Project during 2005-06 found that 61% of VCS organisations surveyed reported skills gaps amongst their employees and that these were largely in line with national trends in the VCS. The top five skills gaps related to: ITC and computer literacy, organisational and staff management, financial management, health and safety and communication. The research also revealed that 37% of VCS organisations in the region had hard to fill vacancies among their paid staff, the majority of these at managerial level. The research also found that, although less than 15% of organisations had difficulties retaining paid staff, almost a quarter have had a problem retaining trustees.