Research by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion on the behalf the Local Government Association reveals large mismatches between skills young people are developing and job vacancies.
At a national level, more than 94,000 people completed hair and beauty courses despite there being just 18,000 new jobs in the sector – of these, more than 60 per cent were 16 to 18-year-olds. However, it also reveals large undersupplies in key sectors nationally. In the construction sector, around 123,000 people, including 44,000 16 to 18-year-olds were trained for around 275,000 jobs.
But local economies are different. The levels of mismatch vary enormously between places. For instance, some places actually need more hairdressers and beauticians, while in other places there is an oversupply of construction workers.
The LGA Hidden Talents campaign wants to work with government to look again at how the national skills system is incentivising young people to undertake training which is unlikely to help them get a job. And to explore how devolving responsibility for education, skills and training to local partnerships – made up of local authorities, schools, colleges and employers – will allow them to match skills with local jobs.
The Inclusion analysis and full data comparing further education skills achievements with a range of occupations and sectors is below.
