By Department for Education (published August 2018)
The UK Employer Skills Survey (ESS) is one of the largest business surveys in the world, with the data in this report based on survey responses from over 87,000 employers. The survey provides a comprehensive source of intelligence on the skills challenges that UK employers face both within their existing workforces and when recruiting, the levels and nature of investment in training and development, and the relationship between skills challenges, training activity and business strategy.
The report outlines the skills employers say are lacking from applicants for their hardest to fill vacancies. The majority of hard-to-fill vacancies (67%) are caused, at least in part, by a lack of skills, qualifications and experience among applicants. The skills that employers found to be lacking among applicants ranged across both technical and practical skills, and people and personal skills. On the technical side, employers reported a lack of digital skills, skills related to operational aspects of the role, and a lack of complex analytical skills. The main people and personal skills lacking predominantly related to self-management skills, management and leadership, and sales and customer handling skills.
Read the full report here.