Annex 2
QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS LEVELS
1. Two-thirds of the growth in the workforce
in the last 10 years has been over 50s. If recruitment of a 50
year old is determined by qualifications they gained 30 years
ago there is something seriously wrong with recruitment processes.
In most recruitment best practice is to base job descriptions
on competences required which are not the same as qualifications.
The extensive surveys of Recruitment by the CBI, the CIPD and
the annual LSC National Employers Skills Survey discuss and measure
the scale of skills shortages and vacancies, but make no mention
of qualifications or qualifications shortages. There is nothing
to endorse the view that "over half of employers feel that
it is important that training leads to a qualification" (p
56).
2. More than half of all employer funded
training is not related to qualifications and only 10% of it in
FE colleges. The majority is in work training which is not accredited
and does not build towards a qualification. Level 2 qualifications
show little economic return (p 64) (The Leitch response is that
this is because they are the wrong qualifications, see p 80.)
The statement that employers are really frustrated by "lack
of influence over qualifications" is not the picture that
emerges from the literature on the National Framework of Qualifications
and National Standards (p 48). There is no consideration in all
the main surveys of employer sponsored training of whether and
how it leads to the attainment of qualifications. There is nothing
in these reviews to indicate a strong appetite for qualifications
as distinct from job related training.
3. Employers consistently rate soft skills
which are not determined by qualifications as the most important
and the most frequently missing (the Report's proposal is that
employability skills should be embedded in other qualifications
(p 63)). It needs to be demonstrated that this is the best way
to gain soft skills and that it would be equally appropriate for
someone with 30 years working experience as someone with none.
4. The Report gives short shrift to the
view that the labour market is polarising at either end like an
hour glass (p 33). Even allowing that low skilled jobs have a
much higher turnover rate than well qualified jobs, the evidence
of the labour market is of continuing major demand for low skilled
workers. This includes an apparently willingness of employers
to overlook the fact that 40% of migrants are Level 4 qualified
and use most of them in low skilled, low paid work.
5. UK firms are poorly managed compared
to major competitors (p 52). The CBI Survey 2006 says that the
highest priority is training for leadership and management skills
(p 41). Yet Chart 2 (p 41) shows that managers and professions
are the only occupational category whose share of the skills gap
is well below their share of employment, indicating that relatively
speaking they are the most well endowed with training.
6. 41% of UK business owners do not have
qualifications; is it demonstrable that 59% who have them are
better or worse managers as a result (see pps 57, 89-90)? Achieving
the productivity gains from increased skills (calculated as only
0.1% pa compared to the trend rate of 2.0% pa (p 60) is clearly
dependent on this. The Report's recommendation is that "the
Leadership and Management Advisory Panel advise the Commission
for Employment and Skills on developing Occupational Standards
for Management with the Management Standards Centre and building
on work already done by the Chartered Management Institute."
(!)
7. Two-thirds of people with Level 3 or
above do not have numeracy skills at Level 1 (Leitch Interim Report
p 39). This is some indication of the extent to which qualifications
are not a proxy for the most important employability skills.
January 2007
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