Department publishes Skills Monitoring Survey

The Department for Employment and Learning has today published the Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008: Main and Summary Reports.

The reports provide an overview of the issues connected with current vacancies, difficulties in filling vacancies, retention difficulties, skill shortages, skill gaps and training from an employer’s perspective.

The reports provide a valuable insight into employer skill needs in Northern Ireland and update findings from the Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring surveys of 2002 and 2005 and help to provide the Department with useful comparisons over time.

The research links with the Department’s Skills Strategy under the theme, 'Understanding the Demand for Skills', and will help inform current skill requirements and the future planning and funding of post-16 education and training. It will also inform the work of the Northern Ireland Advisor for Employment and Skills, as well as feeding into the work of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

Key findings include:

• at the time the research was undertaken, 12% of employers reported having a current vacancy. One third of these employers (4% of total) reported experiencing difficulty in filling these vacancies;
• just under two thirds (62%) of difficult-to-fill vacancies were due to skill-shortages. External skill-shortages were defined as those vacancies difficult-to-fill because there is a lack of applicants with the required skills, experience or qualifications;
• overall, one fifth (22%) of employers reported proficiency-based skill gaps. These skill gaps occur when an employee is not considered to be fully proficient i.e. where an employee is not able to do their job to the required level;
• those skills that were mentioned most often as requiring improvement in the workforce were problem solving, customer handling, oral communication as well as technical and practical skills;
• almost three quarters of employers (74%) had organised some training for their employees in the previous 12 months. Over half (53%) of employers provided off-the-job training, while three fifths (61%) of employers had organised on-the-job training for their staff; and
• the survey estimates overall employer expenditure on training in the previous 12 months to be £1.45billion. Just over half of this was spent on on-the-job training (£740million) while the remaining amount was spent on off-the-job training (£714million).

Notes to editors:

1. The full report is available to download from the Department for Employment and Learning website
2. All media queries should be directed to the Department for Employment and Learning Communications Branch on 028 9025 7872. Out of office hours please contact the duty press officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.