Recommendation 86

Some contributors to our inquiry argued that addressing skills challenges was made more difficult by a lack of data on the skills composition of the UK workforce. Professor Keith Hartley told us that while the UK has “decent data on both direct and indirect employment in the UK’s defence industries…when we come to ask questions about the skills, we do not have much published information on the skills composition.”142 He argued that more research was needed to understand what skills were needed in shipbuilding, and therefore what training courses were required.143 Professor John Louth agreed that the UK’s capability gaps were something that “can be identified and known but we generally fail to measure, meaning that private sector workforce competencies, for 136 Professor John Louth (DIS0028) 137 Professor John Louth (DIS0028) 138 City of Glasgow College (DIS0035) 139 Q144 140 City of Glasgow College (DIS0035) 141 Q99 142 Q142 143 Q142 32 Defence in Scotland: military shipbuilding government, remain a strategic vulnerability.”144 One of the tasks of the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce (the work of which we explore in further detail in the next section) is to develop the UK Government’s understanding of shipbuilding skills.145