Recommendation 2

HM Government Acknowledged

We are already undertaking analysis through numerous means to help determine immediate and longer-term skills needs. As announced in September 2020, the new Skills and Productivity Board will provide expert analysis of national skills needs to inform government policy. The independent board, composed of labour market and skills economists, is being commissioned by government ministers to provide evidence and analysis that addresses the most pressing gaps in our knowledge of the labour market. Building on the existing evidence, it will consider which skills and training add the most value to the economy, where the key skills mismatches are both now and in the future, and which courses return the best earnings for both adults and young people. The Education Secretary will use the Skills and Productivity Board’s evidence to inform policy decisions. The Department for Education manages the Employer Skills Survey, the only national survey of employers that provides comprehensive and robust information on employers’ skills needs, their interaction with the skills system, and their investment in training. The survey collects highly detailed data from employers about vacancies they are struggling to fill, what specific skills are lacking from applicants, and what skills their current staff need to develop. Data from the survey is publicly available, with current employer skill needs available at local geographies and broken down by detailed industrial and occupational classifications. In addition to informing the Department for Education’s initiatives, the data is used by other government departments, academics, sector bodies, and local partners such as Skills Advisory Panels to help understand labour markets and plan skills development. In addition to the Employer Skills Survey, which asks employers about current skills issues, the Department for Education also manages Working Futures, which provides future UK labour market and skills projections, by sector and occupation, for the period 2017–2027. It includes results for the devolved administrations and English regions. Its objective is to provide useful labour market information that can help to inform policy development and strategy around skills, careers and employment, for both policy makers and a wider audience. The Department also funds the Labour Market Information (LMI) for All service, which was originally developed in response to the Government’s open data agenda to maximise the use of public data. LMI for All is an impartial service which connects and standardises existing national sources of high quality and reliable LMI. The service aims to provide individuals and careers advisers with the information they need to make informed careers decisions about their education, training and employment options. Users of the service include schools, colleges, universities, local authorities, public bodies, other government departments, the National Careers Service, and web and app developers such as BBC Bitesize. As part of the service, LMI for All has also started to pilot the collection and dissemination of job vacancy data from online job portals. This data will be made freely available through LMI for All’s application programming interface (API) for users to access and use. By updating this dataset regularly, it is hoped to create a close to real- time set of vacancy data. The LMI for All service is also linked up with the BEIS-led cross-government group on online job vacancy data, which includes a number of other government departments and Nesta. As an example of how the above analysis is used to inform policymaking, research and user engagement undertaken for the National Retraining Scheme has helped inform initial offers funded from the National Skills Fund. Through the Employer Skills Survey 2019, a shortage of technical skills was identified by employers. The skills that are prioritised and delivered for the Skills Bootcamps will be based on the demand for skills by local employers and have therefore been developed with input from a wide range of stakeholders, including local areas, employers, industry bodies and Further Education (FE) providers. Going forward, the Government plans to consult on the National Skills Fund in Spring 2021 to ensure that we develop a fund that helps adults learn valuable skills, and the list of funded level 3 qualifications and Sector Subject Areas in scope will be kept under review to ensure they adapt to the changing needs of the economy, ensuring we deliver an effective offer for adults and employers.