Lack of skills costs West Mids £6m
Skills shortages across the region are costing £6m in lost productivity. According to research by skills council Semta, engineering, manufacturing and science companies in the West Midlands still have vacancies they are not able to fill because of skills shortages.
In addition, the data reveals that 23 per cent of West Midlands businesses in Semta’s sectors report skills gaps amongst staff. The skills council expects this number to rise increase as older skilled workers retire.
Philip Whiteman, chief executive of Semta said: “We know that investing in skills has helped many businesses in our sectors survive the downturn. We’ve seen that businesses working with Semta’s National Skills Academy for Manufacturing achieve, on average, a 6:1 ratio of return on their investment, reinforcing to all companies the real value of skills development.”
The research also reveals that almost 23,000 new recruits will be needed in these sectors between now and 2016. Of these, almost 7,000 will be required to have higher level skills, demonstrating the need to ensure that businesses in the region have the right development and training in place for their workforces.
