🚀 A Solution to Wales’s Skills Shortage in our Priority and Growth Sectors
Wales's priority and growth sectors are vital for our socio-economic wellbeing, they contribute to innovation, productivity, and competitiveness. But organisations that can scale in these sectors are facing a critical skills shortage because of... an under-skilled workforce, an ageing workforce, rapid technological change, and increased global competition.
🤔 Tackling the Skills Shortages
According to last years education statistics, only 29.4% of school leavers in Wales applied for university, compared to 38.8% in England, 32.5% in Scotland, and 46.9% in Northern Ireland.
You might have heard me shout about the fact that a whopping 70% of our young people here in Wales don't go to uni! That's a mammoth piece of the talent pie that need's to be better supported and mobilised towards higher-valued employment for their socioeconomic benefit and to the benefit of providing talent for our priority and growth sectors.
💡 Step up to apprenticeships!
If the degree, with it's growing debt and declining demand, was the answer then we wouldn't have growing skills shortages, would we?!
It's long overdue that we shift focus and shift gear to ramping up the availability of Apprenticeships and Degree Apprenticeships.
Hiring an apprentice is a productive and effective way to grow talent and develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce... don't just take my word for it:
- 86% of employers say that apprenticeships help them develop skills relevant to their organisation.
- 78% of employers said apprenticeships helped them improve productivity
- 74% of employers said apprenticeships helped them improve the quality of their product or service.
The Benefits Don't End There!
Employers are benefitting from...
🤝 Recruiting and retaining motivated and loyal staff who are trained to meet their specific needs.
📑 Shaping the learning, it's far more bespoke than the Degree curriculum, they shape the specific qualifications and delivery to suit what the organisation needs.
🤩 Accessing a greater and more diverse talent pool... that big piece of the talent pie is up for grabs, apprenticeships is nowhere near as restrictive as 'Graduate Schemes'.
🚀 Filling skills gaps and future-proofing their workforce; if you don't invest in the future of the skills you need... who will?!
🥳 An increase productivity and quality of service... that's a winner!
📢 An enhanced reputation and competitiveness; you can develop a whole campaign and it can become your brand personality, lean in and make the apprentice the main character
😎 Accessing government funding and support; it's not like regular recruitment activities where you post and hope, companies are being fully supported to reach the talent pool and money is available to help, too.
“We have been working with our local university to offer degree apprenticeships in engineering and IT. It has been a great way to attract and retain talented staff who can apply their learning to real-world projects. We have seen a positive impact on our productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.”
- Mark, Company Director
🚀 Ready to Take Action? Here's the Next Steps...
Whilst forecasts predict an increase in skill gaps, overlooking the opportunity to benefit from an apprenticeship pipeline is just silly!
Companies should proactively engage in future skills forecasting and assume responsibility for developing your future talent pipelines. Those that put a future skills strategy at the heart of their organisation will win.
So why wait? Get started with these 5 links:
- There are 10 Training Providers that offer apprenticeships in Wales; check out the list, explore their offers and make contact.
- Further Education College’s offer apprenticeships; check out the list and explore their offers, too.
- You can explore the employers that have taken the steps to offer apprenticeships, here, maybe someone there is in your LinkedIn network, and can give you some employer insights.
- For higher level degree apprenticeships, you explore what this list of Welsh universities has to offer, and make contact.
- One of a favourite to emerge recently in offering Digital Apprenticeships is ITeC Digital Training, there is a real lack in digital offerings, and as a collective we can change that.
Do it for Wales! The organisation that prioritises future-skills at the heart of it's people strategy, wins. The nation that put's a future skills focus at the heart of it's education strategy wins.
I want us to win!
By investing in apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships, we can ensure that Wales's priority and growth sectors have the skills, talent, and innovation it needs to thrive, with a young skilled workforce that has access to higher-valued jobs and on a trajectory towards prosperous futures.
You've got this 😎✌️
Gem Hallett, miFuture Founder
miFuture.co.uk | @miFutureSkills
