The skills shortage is one of the most significant economic challenges in the UK

David Phillips

Managing Director, City & Guilds and ILM

With a number of essential industries needing to tackle the issue of an aging workforce and finding suitable candidates to meet demand, the UK is facing acute labour market and skills shortages.

Social care, construction and engineering are among the sectors most impacted by the skills shortage. Large scale government and private sector infrastructure and house building initiatives will create demand for construction and engineering professionals, while the ageing population is expected to create a further 450,000 vacancies in social care by 2035. 

Diversity challenges 

Coupled with this, many of these industries also struggle with a lack of diversity, further restricting talent pools, with women making up just 14% of the construction workforce, men accounting for just 18% of those of those working in social care and only 8.1% of the engineering workforce coming from BAME backgrounds. In addition, this can harm social mobility, with many of these sectors offering high paying, sustainable roles, but often struggling to attract people from a broad range of gender, ethnic and social backgrounds. 

Declining apprenticeship rates 

Apprenticeships have traditionally provided an effective route into a wide range of fields, including those which are currently facing skills shortages. However, a decline in the number of apprenticeships has been driven not only by the pandemic but also by wider structural changes in the system prior to the impact of COVID-19. This has been further compounded by the fact that many young people are choosing to pursue university over vocational or technical education.

A 2021 City & Guilds survey of school leavers in the UK found that just 13% planned to pursue an apprenticeship while 30% intended to go on to university. Clearly, for apprenticeships to maximise their potential in addressing the skills shortage and social mobility it will be essential to promote their benefits to young people.

Apprenticeships have traditionally provided an effective route into a wide range of fields, including those which are currently facing skills shortages.

Career progression opportunities 

It will also be vital to emphasise the potential for career progression offered by apprenticeships. Among the students we surveyed who planned to attend university, 41% said their decision was based on the belief it would lead to a good job and 40% said that they had chosen university because they believed it would improve their earning potential. 

Despite this perception that attending university will lead to higher paying jobs, recent research suggests that apprenticeships can offer similar or even greater earning potential compared to a degree. In addition, those who had completed apprenticeships experienced lower rates of unemployment than graduates between 2017 and 2020.A collaborative effort between employers, government, schools, colleges and awarding and assessment organisations to improve awareness and understanding of apprenticeships will be vital to address skills gaps in critical industries. It will also give young people the chance to make the most informed choices about their future.