UKCES Employer Perspectives Survey 2014

Transcription

1 UKCES Employer Perspectives Survey 2014

2 UKCES and the Employer Perspectives Survey The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) is a publicly funded, industry-led organisation providing research and insight on skills and employment issues across the UK. We are a social partnership chaired by Sir Charlie Mayfield from the John Lewis Partnership and led by 30 Commissioners including the CBI, trade unions, businesses of all sizes, education representatives and the third sector. UKCES runs an Employer Perspectives Survey (EPS) which asks 18,000 employers about their perspectives on recruitment, skills and education issues. This pack provides an overview of the findings on work experience, English and Maths (inc. GCSEs), and qualifications. The findings reflect the perspectives of employers across the UK and can be cut by size, sector, region and more. The survey is biennial, so in some cases can look at results in 2010, 2012 and 2014 to see what has changed. This robust and high quality research can help identify what works and what doesn t, and support evidence-based policymaking. For further information see the full report and data tables at:

3 Headlines Work experience 66% of employers say that work experience is critical or significant when recruiting. Despite this, just 30% offer work experience to young people in education. But of those employers who don t offer work experience, less than 1% cite schools and colleges being difficult to engage with as the reason. Instead they cite a lack of suitable roles, lack of time and resources and concerns about the size of their business English and Maths 57% of employers say English and Maths GCSEs are critical or significant when recruiting. At the same time, only tiny proportions of employers cite poor literacy or numeracy as an issue (just 4% of those who take on 16 year olds, and fewer than 1% of those who take on graduates). Qualifications 50% of employers say that vocational qualifications are critical or significant when recruiting, up from 35% in This is equal to proportions of employers saying academic qualifications are critical or significant.

4 Contents 1. Recruitment of young people 2. Work experience and work inspiration 3. English and Maths (GCSEs) 4. Qualifications

5 Recruitment of young people: Preparedness for work Employer views on their young recruits preparedness for work Well prepared Poorly prepared University leavers 2% 13% year old 4% 20% college leavers Very well prepared Very poorly prepared 60% 21% 81% 62% 11% 73% Employers who recruit young people straight from education generally find them well prepared for work year old school leavers 16 year old school leavers 8% 6% 30% 33% 51% 42% 9% 60% 11% 53% The older and more qualified young people are, the more likely employers are to say this. Base: all employers who recruit each type of education leaver Notably, employers find year old college leavers better prepared than school leavers of the same age.

6 Recruitment of young people: Reasons for poor preparedness Proportion of employers of young people who find them poorly or very poorly prepared, by reason Lack of working world/life experience or maturity Poor attitude/personality or lack of motivation 6% 10% 14% 13% 20% 21% 20% 25% Most employers who recruit education leavers find them well prepared for work. Of the minority who don t, the number one issue is lack of experience. Lack of common sense Poor education Literacy or numeracy skills Lack of required skills or competencies 6% 5% 3% 2% 3% 1% 1% 1% 4% 2% 1% 0 10% 9% 7% 5% 16 year old school leavers year old school leavers year old college leavers University leavers Understandably, employers are more likely to say this about their youngest recruits. Only a tiny minority of employers who recruit young people straight from education think literacy or numeracy skills are a problem. Base: All employers who have recruited each type of education leaver

7 Recruitment: what s important Importance of various factors when recruiting candidates 66% 57% 49% 50% 23% 43% 21% 36% 15% 34% 15% 35% 66% of employers say work experience is critical or significant, and the most important factor, when recruiting. The next most important factor for employers are Maths and English GCSEs 57% value these when recruiting. 24% 27% 33% 31% Large and medium-sized employers are more likely to find work experience important - 71% of employers with 25+ employees say this. 8% Relevant work experience No value Significant Base: All employers 14% Maths & English GCSE 15% Academic qualifications % Relevant NVQ / SVQ Small amount of value Critical However, across the board the importance of work experience to employers has gone down by 8% since 2010.

8 Work experience and work inspiration 44% of employers offer some form of work experience, including both placements to young people and adults and broader work inspiration activities. 30% of employers offer work experience placements to young people in education. 18% offer work inspiration activities to young people in education Employers are almost twice as likely to offer work experience placements to those in school compared to college or university. 12% of employers offer both work experience placements and work inspiration activities. A quarter take young people on placements without conducting any work inspiration activities.

9 Work experience: An overview Work experience placements offered by type of educational establishment (2012 and 2014) 18% 20% % 12% 12% 7% Overall, 30% of employers offer work experience placements to those in education. Employers are almost twice as likely to offer placements to those in school than in colleges or universities. Employers are more likely to offer placements now than they were in School FE/ Sixth form University Base: All employers Recruitment of young people following work experience placements Some employers use work experience as a tool for recruitment. University FE college/ sixth form Schools 10% 16% 21% Although more employers offer placements to those in school, they are more likely to recruit college and university students following the placement (whether at the end of the placement or later in life). Base: All who have had placements in the past 12 months

10 Work experience: size of employers Education placements by size of employer 62% 54% 43% 38% 31% 29% 24% 21% 16% 2 to 4 5 to 9 10 to to Establishment size (by number of employees) Base: All employers 72% Larger employers are much more likely to offer work experience placements than smaller ones, reflecting that they will have more resources and personnel to operate work experience programmes. However, greater proportions of all sizes of employers are offering work experience in comparison with 2012.

11 Work experience: by sector Placements to those in education by sector Education 76% Health and social work Public admin. Community Business services 30% 39% 44% 50% There are stark differences between sectors and the likelihood of offering placements to those in education. Transport, Storage and Comms Financial services Wholesale and Retail Primary sector and utilities Hotels and restaurants Manufacturing Construction 28% 27% 26% 23% 20% 19% 14% However, specific sectors may be offering different kinds of work experience to the sector (other than placements to those in education). For example third sector employers offered more internships than average. Further, 20% employers in the Hotels and Restaurant sector offered work trials. Proportion of employers offering work placements to those in education (Base: All establishments)

12 Work experience by region Liverpool has a high proportion of employers offering work placements despite having relatively high unemployment. In Humber only 29% of employers offer work experience. This is also an area of high unemployment and high youth unemployment, and a low proportion of employees are in the top three occupational classifications. Employers in the south of England are more likely to offer work experience: 40% compared to 35% elsewhere Nationally, 38% of employers offer some form of work experience (not just education placements).

13 Work experience by region 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Proportion of employers offering work experience by LEP region Base: All employers

14 4% 3% 2% 2% 6% 6% 5% 9% 9% 10% 9% 11% 11% 13% 13% 15% 17% 21% 24% 42% 41% Work experience: Duration of placements Duration of work experience placements Placements for people at school Placements for people at FE /sixth form Placements for people at university Work experience placements offered to students at school typically last no longer than 3 weeks. For university and college students, placements are more likely to be for longer durations. Overall, 38% of all work experience placements lasted for less than 3 weeks. A week or less Two to three weeks Around a month Two to three months Four to sixth months Seven to twelve months Over a year Base: All who have had placements in the last 12 months

15 Work experience: Reasons for offering Reasons for offering work experience placements Gives them experience Helps us with recruitment Moral reasons/ benefits to young people Part of formal social responsibility Asked by student or school An extra pair of hands/ help with the workload Raises profile in the recruitment market Don t know Favour for family/friend Do not need to pay them Other Existing links/ partnerships with education Beneficial to company Requirement of qualification/ essential part of their studies 2% 3% 2% 2% 3% 2% 4% 2% 1% 1% 4% 5% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 9% 8% 7% 7% 20% 28% 26% 35% % 54% 28% of employers say that work experience placements help them with recruitment. This has risen from 20% in There has been no change in the top reason for offering placements: to provide young people with work experience. This remains the case despite the size of the employer. Overall, altruism can be considered the main motivating factor for taking young people on work experience placements, accounting for approximately 71% of employers who offer it. 38% of employers say that placements benefit them in some way. This has increased since Base: All who have had placements in the last 12 months

16 Base: all employers not offering work experience Work experience: Reasons for not offering Reasons employers give for not offering work experience placements (%) We have no suitable roles Do not have the time / resource to manage it They are not suitable due to the size of the establishment No one has approached us Recruitment freeze Company policy / Head Office decision Regulatory requirements Never thought about it Don't know Other Don't have the work to offer them Prefer to recruit experienced staff through other avenues Does not offer us any business benefits / Benefits not worth cost No need (unspec.) Age restrictions Would like to but don't know how to organise Bad experience with placements or internships in the past Educational Institutions are difficult to engage with No providers locally Schools are difficult to engage with Confidential / sensitive work Universities are difficult to engage with Further Education / 6th form colleges are difficult to engage with The top reason employers who don t offer work experience give for this is that they have no suitable roles (38%). The second reason is lack of time and resource 26% of employers say this, a significant rise since 16% in Positively, only 10% of employers who don t offer work experience put this down to no one approaching them. This has halved from 20% in 2012 to 10% now. A tiny minority of 1% of employers who don t offer work experience say this is because schools are difficult to engage with.

17 Work experience: Encouraging more employers to offer it Proportion of employers who don t offer work experience saying what could encourage them to offer it Nothing Don't know 17% 34% 34% of employers who don t offer work experience say that nothing would convince them to do so. Financial incentives to compensate for the resource used Pro-active approaches from schools/colleges/universities Less bureaucracy Help or advice on finding candidates 6% 5% 12% 15% Many employers allude to the removal of practical barriers around the set up and management of placements. Business Growth / More Staff / More Work / Increased Profits Better quality of placement candidates Practical assistance managing the placements Other 5% 5% 4% 4% 12% of those not offering work experience say they might do so if schools, colleges and universities were more proactive. Company / head office decision More information on placements More advertising / raise awareness 3% 3% 2% Only a small proportion of employers think the quality of candidates needed to be improved. Base: All who have not had anyone in on work placements or engaged with education institutions to offer other work related experiences to students in the last 12 months

18 Work inspiration: An overview In the UKCES Not just making tea report published February 2014, we called for work experience to be reinvented and for a broader definition of work inspiration to include talks in schools, site visits, mentoring and other activities which inspire young people to think about work. As such we included a question about this in EPS 2014, on whether employers work with schools, colleges to offer work inspiration activities. Work inspiration activities offered by employers, by type Any 18% Talks Site visits Mentoring 7% 8% 8% Overall, 18% of employers offer work inspiration activities. The majority of employers do talks in schools, offer site visits or do mentoring. Course-work Mock interviews 4% 4% Larger employers are more likely to be involved in offering work inspiration activities. Enterprise competitions 3% Base: All employers

19 English and Maths The importance of English and Maths GCSEs when recruiting, by sector Financial services Education Public admin. Business services Transport, Storage and Comms Health and social work Manufacturing 23% 17% 30% 33% 26% 40% 43% 39% 38% 37% 43% 36% 44% 39% 57% of employers consider English and Maths GCSEs to be critical or significant when recruiting. This is the second most important factor, after experience. Employer attitude to English and Maths GCSE varies more diversely by sector than any other factor. Employers who offer apprenticeships are more likely to consider this important (62%) than those that do not (56%). Community Wholesale and Retail Construction Primary sector and utilities Hotels and restaurants Base: All employers 18% 15% 14% 11% 10% 35% 37% 37% 28% 29% Critical Significant At the same time, as we have seen, only a tiny minority of employers who recruit young people and don t find them well prepared for work think literacy or numeracy skills are the reason for this (4% of employers say this about school leavers, and it goes down to 1% for graduates).

20 Academic qualifications Education The importance of academic qualifications, by sector 48% 36% Financial services 24% 51% Public admin. Business services Health and social work 23% 26% 21% 44% 38% 39% Around half of employers (49%) say that the level of academic qualification is a critical or significant factor in recruitment. Transport, Storage and Comms Community Construction Manufacturing 16% 14% 9% 8% 39% 36% 34% 32% Critical Overall the importance of academic qualifications remained largely the same since There has only a slight increase in the proportion of employers who consider them critical or significant. Wholesale and Retail 8% 31% Significant Primary sector and utilities Hotels and restaurants 6% 4% 22% 26% Base: All employers

21 Vocational qualifications The importance of vocational qualifications, by year No Value Small amount of value Significant Critical 7% 9% 28% 29% 38% 33% 15% 35% 31% Vocational qualifications* are steadily becoming more important to employers. 50% of employers consider them as critical or significant factors when recruiting in 2014, compared to 35% in Vocational qualifications seem to be broadly held in the same esteem as academic qualifications. * National Vocational Qualifications and Scottish Vocational Qualifications 26% 26% 17% Base: All employers

22 Vocational qualifications The importance of vocational qualifications, by sector Education 40% 39% Health and social work Community Construction Primary sector and utilities 21% 21% 15% 14% 42% 39% 40% 41% Employers from the education (79%), health and social work (63%) and community (60%) sectors are the most likely to say vocational qualifications are important when recruiting. Public admin. Business services Transport, Storage and Comms Manufacturing Financial services 18% 17% 14% 13% 7% 35% 35% 36% 36% 36% Critical Significant Employers from the financial services (43%), hospitality (41%) and wholesale and retail (38%) sectors are the least likely to say vocational qualifications are important when recruiting. Hotels and restaurants 9% 32% Wholesale and Retail 9% 29% Base: All employers

23 The UKCES Employer Perspectives Survey 2014 of 18,000 employers provides a UKwide picture of how employers are meeting their skills and recruitment needs, looking both at their engagement with skills and employment services and their broader approaches to people development. Topics covered include: approaches to recruitment; awareness and use of skills support services/initiatives; training and engagement with external training providers; use of vocational qualifications and apprenticeships; use of work placements; and the recruitment of young people. Data is available by sector, size of establishments and geography. For further information please contact: Sarah.Chander@ukces.org.uk