Skills in the Region
The best performing organisations in the West Midlands are using the skills and talents of their people to produce high quality, world-class products and services. We need more people in the region developing their skills, to drive forward our economy and enable individuals and employers to reach their full potential.
Some of the headline issues about skills levels in the West Midlands are:
- Our regional economy is shifting. Services now take prominence over manufacturing, bringing with them increasing demands on managerial, professional and customer-facing skills. At the same time, industries based on new technologies require job specific, technical and practical skills.
- Over the next decade there is forecast to be a 30% increase in demand for degree level qualifications and a 20% increase in demand for higher degrees. At the same time there will be a 40% decrease in demand for those with no qualifications.
- The existing workforce in the West Midlands lacks the skills that employers require for their organisations to develop and grow. A third of the region's employers cite such skills gaps.
- Minority ethnic communities and older people are set to make up an increasing proportion of the workforce over the next decade. Employers will need to make good use of these sections of the population in order to address recruitment gaps.
- The region is poor at retaining graduates - more than half take a job outside the West Midlands. Many of the graduates we do hold on to are employed in low level jobs that do not fully exploit their potential.
For more statistics and trends relating to skills levels in the West Midlands, read the Regional Skills Assessment. This was researched and produced by the West Midlands Regional Observatory. The Observatory has been jointly funded by Advantage West Midland, the Learning and Skills Council and the European Union to undertake labour market and skills research. The Observatory has published on behalf of the West Midlands Regional Skill Partnership a range of sectoral and cross-cutting skills studies (Reports and Data sets available). The Observatory is also leading the Data Group.