The skills shortage is global
Lest we assume the difficulty that employers face in hiring the right people is a UK issue, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, has long had its eye on the diversity of industries facing a skills gap. The skills shortage is global.
Construction struggles in the face of Brexit
The UK’s Office for National Statistics has put numbers to the construction industry’s decline, at least as far as it sees itself: optimism has hit a five-year low. Despite the Conservative government’s pledge to build three hundred thousand new homes, concern over Brexit’s ramifications for the economy and the construction industry’s competitiveness dog the discussion.
A recent conference, UCL’s ‘Skills Shortage in Construction: Building the Future Post Brexit’, saw academics and industry stalwarts frame the conversation around six key themes:
- the impact of Brexit
- automation, innovation and building information modelling
- the union perspective
- construction history
- mega-projects
- training
Each aspect is worthy of examination, of course. A Storify roundup offers good food for thought with respect to improved training, productivity and early-years education as a route to closing the skills gap.
Canada faces a skills shortage
The shortfall in skilled workers drew the attention of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which highlighted a staggering 361,700 job vacancies across the country. What, then, are the employers looking for and not finding? Professor Jeff Boggs of Canada’s Brock University observes the following about the skills gap:
‘Positions are reputedly going unfilled because employers have trouble finding workers with the right skills – hard skills, soft skills, IT skills, STEM skills, writing skills or presentation skills – not to mention those who possess traits like punctuality, discipline or a can-do attitude.’
Boggs points to insufficient education but also suggests that employers have a responsibility around salary structures; effort is required to make vacancies more attractive to those with the desired skills.
Australia is on the hunt for mining skills
Increasing investment and company expansion in Australia is contributing to job growth, but here, too, the skills gap is prevalent.
‘A recent report by Mining News quoted Saracen Mineral Holdings Managing Director Raleigh Finlayson saying mining wasn’t seen as “cool”. It seems while there’s a renewed focus on getting students to study STEM subjects, the students have dreams of careers in Silicon Valley, not [mining town] Tom Price.’
Tackling the shortage
The variables behind chronic shortages can understandably vary between, say, construction and IT or between the UK and Australia, though common themes emerge. To combat the challenges, forward-thinking employers are considering novel approaches to training and development, new organisational and salary structures, and meaningful ways to engage workers from an early age.
