Skills shortage still a problem in UK

It was interesting to read a recent report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) regarding the high number of roles being offshored and the steady number of migrant workers in the UK.

The CIPD and KPMG Labour Market Outlook survey found around one in five employers recruited migrant workers in the past three months, with public sector employers more likely to hire migrant workers than private sector ones.

Of the 700 companies surveyed around 40 per cent say they have vacancies that are hard-to-fill and more than half of those vacancies are skills-related with engineer, doctor and nurse positions the most difficult to recruit for.

In seems ironic that despite rising unemployment, employers are still struggling to recruit the people they need and are turning abroad to plug the gap.

So what is the solution?

It is important that companies keep investing in learning and development programmes and resist the urge to cut back too aggressively to save costs.  It is also up to each individual to proactively pursue personal development programmes.

During the recession, many funded training programmes have been introduced that give employees opportunities to re-train in new directions.  The R2R scheme in the East of England offers £1200 to anyone living or working in the region who is at risk of redundancy.

To access support to help ease the burden of redundancies, contact Katherine Wiid Director of Recrion who is actively facilitating the R2R scheme on 01780 484910 or visit www.recrion.co.uk