Rebooting Lifelong Learning For a Skilled Workforce
Skills shortages will cost the UK £120 billion by 2030. At least 80% of the 2030 workforce is already in employment, which means that responsibility for upskilling the future labour market rests largely with employers. Yet employers’ spending on workplace training has fallen by 28% over the last two decades.
This factsheet collates key statistics to show employer investment in lifelong learning. It sets out what is happening right now and what will happen if businesses do not reboot their approaches to lifelong learning.
Before COVID
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK was facing a skills crisis. Post-pandemic, we are also now experiencing the tightest labour market in history. There are 1.2 million job vacancies, of which nearly 25% are skills shortage vacancies, and the economically active population (i.e., the number of people employed or looking for work) has shrunk by half a million compared to 2019. There are not enough people with the right skills for the jobs that are available.
The future
Without government and business working together, the skills gap will only get bigger. By 2030, there will be a shortfall of 2.5 million highly skilled workers and an oversupply of 8.1 million people with intermediate or low skills.
63% of Learning & Development professionals say that their CEO has become an active champion of workplace learning. This shift in focus from recruitment to upskilling may be indicative of a recognition that investing in existing employees is more cost-effective than recruiting, or it may be symptomatic of the struggle businesses face recruiting for the skills that they want, so they need to invest in their people instead.
A lifelong learning strategy brings business benefits
Download the factsheet for more information and statistics.
- Increased productivity. Effective reskilling brings a productivity uplift of 6-12% .
- Greater staff retention. 8% of UK workers have handed in their notice due to being denied a training request.
- Improved staff wellbeing.
- More attractive to jobseekers. 52% of Millennials say that opportunities for career progression make an organisation an attractive employer
References
All facts are referenced in the document