The technological and social transformations of the past decade are accelerating changes to the world of work. With increasing skills shortages in the eight ‘growth’ areas identified by the government’s recently published Industrial Strategy, employers are struggling to find the right people to fill a rising number of vacancies.
This summer, statistics from job search site Indeed showed a crisis in openings for recent graduates, down 33 per cent compared with last year. There is therefore an urgent need for a skills strategy to complement the Industrial Strategy. The work of Skills England so far has concentrated on a narrow set of challenges. It’s time for a transformational shift in the way skills training is delivered so our economy thrives and young people’s talent is optimised.
Polling by YouGov commissioned by Kingston University in London has shown us more and more employers see artificial intelligence (AI) changing hiring practices, with 65 per cent of respondents believing it will influence how they hire to some degree. It has also revealed that many employers (56 per cent) are moving away from the degree as a proxy for capability to an overtly skills-based approach.These two strands are not contradictory. It is possible to have well-educated graduates of the future who can cope with rapid change, adapt quickly and who have already acquired the skills needed for their immediate employment.
The polling shows a trend over the past four years for employers to place ever more value on skills such as problem-solving, communication, critical thinking, digital, initiative and adaptability. Candidates of the future will be evaluated by their competencies rather than their degree subjects, reinforcing the importance of a skills-focused approach in education and training.
AI has dominated the narrative about the future of work in recent years, overtaking the threat of global competition as the primary concern of most employers. However, the overall skills they value remain broadly the same – adaptable individuals who can bring human-centric application to evolving technologies.
Higher education is a key provider of professional and vocational education. The sector crucially works closely with Professional and Statutory Regulatory Bodies to ensure relevance for a wide range of professions and careers. In a world becoming more interconnected through technological innovation and with issues facing us becoming more complex, we need graduates to have the skills to prosper. The vital role of higher education in the skills agenda cannot be underestimated.
Many of our universities are embedded in their own community and are key drivers of growth, regeneration and high-quality jobs. Universities across the country, such as Kingston University, are placing the importance of skills for innovation and their role in driving a thriving national economy at the heart of their work. Following their extensive polling of businesses, designing and prototyping, the Future Skills programme at Kingston University is now part of every undergraduate student’s experience, whether they are studying interior design or nursing, engineering or accounting.
Equally, the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, as well as its Energy Institute, is preparing young people and returners for the world of work in years to come. With a century and a half of history to draw down on, the University of Law, also has a phenomenal record of employability. Its professions are, by their very nature, vocational.
With the government’s forthcoming post-16 policy White Paper challenging tertiary education to meet immediate economic demands while also preparing the nation for future change, it is vital all universities examine their mission, the way they teach and what they teach. This includes the importance of embedding employability – and the skills that go with it – in their curriculum.
If universities are not to continually face attacks from those who wish to go back to a bygone era of elitism, and the trickle-down effect of a few doing well and then passing some of the rewards on to the many, it is this moment when they need to step forward with their own template for the role of the sector in the years to come. Waiting for the ‘attack’, and then trying to defend, will not do.
Helping the government to get this right means a radical change in thinking, which involves holding on to the best of scholarship, putting quality and reputation, first and foremost, in the interests of students. Therefore, universities must relate directly to what is happening globally, as well as nationally, in meeting the challenge.
Direct partnerships with industry are nothing new. The University of Sheffield has developed workstreams with Boeing, Rolls-Royce and McLaren and Kingston University with global employers such as Adobe, to help students acquire the attributes essential for the modern workplace. Kingston is now among a select group of European universities recognised as an Adobe Creative Campus, with students benefiting from innovative tools to develop their creativity and digital literacy.
There is much universities can do to address the skills deficit, from innovations in the curricula to industry partnerships, but there is more that could be done to support higher education to deliver the higher-level skills the country needs. Although the Industrial Strategy has a welcome section on skills, as we write, a comprehensive skills strategy is yet to be published.
It is very clear, if we are to succeed, that higher education should be an important player in delivering an integrated skills strategy that powers the economy, meets employers needs and boosts young people’s careers and lives.
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