The last contribution came from Dr Patrick Watt, Head of Labour Market Research, SDS. His presentation, entitled “putting the local back into the local labour market,can be accessed here (p38-50).
Dr Watt’s presentation centred on reviewing some of the arguments for and against the use of Travel-to-Work-Areas (TTWAs) as approximations to local labour markets/ Functional Economic Market Areas (FEMAs). The key issue was to establish how the local labour market actually works at the local level and whether or not TTWAs are the most effective model in this regard?
Dr Watt argued that alternative approaches are more accurate approximations of local labour markets, one’s which focus on policy-driven geographies rather than data-driven ones. TTWAs continue to decline and are an “arbitrary approach”:
Just because it is the most sophisticated approach doesn’t make it relevant
How does the labour market work?
Dr Watt’s core argument here was to highlight that the differences between theory and practice are “most manifest at the local level”. Indeed, not only does the labour market operate in “un-market like ways” but key assumptions held by theoretical approaches are “difficult to sustain at the local level”.
Dr Watt concluded his contribution by calling for a rethink in how we approach labour markets (see p49 of slides for more details).
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Suggested Further reading
BiS (2009), Skills for Growth: The National Skills Strategy
BiS (2010), Understanding Local Growth
Communities and Local Government (2010), Functional Economic Market Areas: An economic note
Monday, 6 December 2010
Labour Market Event - Key Points Continued
The second contribution – “Skills for Scotland: Accelerating the Recovery and Increasing Sustainable Economic Growth” - came from Steven McMahon, Scottish Government Skills Division. You can download the presentation here.
The presentation covered four main themes: (1) overview of the economy. (2) Public finances. (3) The refreshed skills strategy. (4) Future work.
Economic Overview
- The Government’s current main objective was economic recovery.
- The economic strategy, despite the differing economic conditions, was still “bought into” by civil servants.
- The data (see slides 16-24) tells the story of Scotland lagging behind not only the UK but small EU countries.
Public Finances
- Due to the UK Comprehensive Spending Review, Scottish DEL will fall by 11.3% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2014/15.
- The money we have at our disposal now is the same as 2006 levels.
Refreshed Skills Strategy
- The new strategy can be viewed here - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/skills-strategy/overview
- It provides increased policy alignment with the economic recovery, national performance framework and the economic recovery plan as well as increased alignment with enterprise policies.
- Key focus = increased flexibility and greater simplification.
- Contains a host of achievements the Government has made since 2007 (see p31 of slides).
- Key commitments include (p33): over 40,000 training opportunities in 2010/11, flexible training incentives for employers, simplification of funding of employability support locally and improved linkages between colleges and local employers.
Future Work
- A review will be conducted by Willie Roe into post 16 education and vocational training.
- Further information can be found in his presentation (p35-36).
The presentation covered four main themes: (1) overview of the economy. (2) Public finances. (3) The refreshed skills strategy. (4) Future work.
Economic Overview
- The Government’s current main objective was economic recovery.
- The economic strategy, despite the differing economic conditions, was still “bought into” by civil servants.
- The data (see slides 16-24) tells the story of Scotland lagging behind not only the UK but small EU countries.
Public Finances
- Due to the UK Comprehensive Spending Review, Scottish DEL will fall by 11.3% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2014/15.
- The money we have at our disposal now is the same as 2006 levels.
Refreshed Skills Strategy
- The new strategy can be viewed here - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/skills-strategy/overview
- It provides increased policy alignment with the economic recovery, national performance framework and the economic recovery plan as well as increased alignment with enterprise policies.
- Key focus = increased flexibility and greater simplification.
- Contains a host of achievements the Government has made since 2007 (see p31 of slides).
- Key commitments include (p33): over 40,000 training opportunities in 2010/11, flexible training incentives for employers, simplification of funding of employability support locally and improved linkages between colleges and local employers.
Future Work
- A review will be conducted by Willie Roe into post 16 education and vocational training.
- Further information can be found in his presentation (p35-36).
EDAS/SDS Labour Market Event - Key Points
On the 22 November EDAS and SDS held a joint event on "labour markets: from national to local". You can download the presentations here.
1. UK Perspective - Future Demand for Skills: A Foresight Approach by Dr Richard Garret
- Dr Garret's presentation was largley based on The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010.
- The Audit examined England’s existing & future skills needs identifying the sectors, occupations & skills on which they need to focus.
- Future skills needs were assessed on 3 things: examining drivers of change, a set of LM projections & detailed sectoral analysis.
Key messages
- Need to ensure that the right skills are supplied to meet a changing labour market.
- Demand for, & growth of, high skilled jobs needs to be stimulated. Evidence indicates that too few employers treat skills as a long term investment.
- Identified several important skills priorities including: management & leadership skills, professional skills,Technician & equivalent skills, intermediate vocational skills & customer service & employability skills.
- The audit provided a framework for skills mismatches. Amongst other things, it shows the balance between demand & supply in the LM.
- Key elements of mismatch include: skill shortages, unemployment, skill gaps and migration
- Looking to the future the report outlined the key drivers of change, specifically how demand for skills is likely to change due to labour market adjustments and structural changes.
- 7 key drivers of change were highlighted: regulation & multi-level governance, demography, environment, economics and globalisation, technology, values & identities and consumer demand.
- Dr Garret also mentioned another key strand of work for the UKCES - “Ambition 2020: World Class Skills & Jobs”- which is an annual assessment of our (UK) “progress towards becoming world class in productivity, employment and skills be 2020”.
1. UK Perspective - Future Demand for Skills: A Foresight Approach by Dr Richard Garret
- Dr Garret's presentation was largley based on The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010.
- The Audit examined England’s existing & future skills needs identifying the sectors, occupations & skills on which they need to focus.
- Future skills needs were assessed on 3 things: examining drivers of change, a set of LM projections & detailed sectoral analysis.
Key messages
- Need to ensure that the right skills are supplied to meet a changing labour market.
- Demand for, & growth of, high skilled jobs needs to be stimulated. Evidence indicates that too few employers treat skills as a long term investment.
- Identified several important skills priorities including: management & leadership skills, professional skills,Technician & equivalent skills, intermediate vocational skills & customer service & employability skills.
- The audit provided a framework for skills mismatches. Amongst other things, it shows the balance between demand & supply in the LM.
- Key elements of mismatch include: skill shortages, unemployment, skill gaps and migration
- Looking to the future the report outlined the key drivers of change, specifically how demand for skills is likely to change due to labour market adjustments and structural changes.
- 7 key drivers of change were highlighted: regulation & multi-level governance, demography, environment, economics and globalisation, technology, values & identities and consumer demand.
- Dr Garret also mentioned another key strand of work for the UKCES - “Ambition 2020: World Class Skills & Jobs”- which is an annual assessment of our (UK) “progress towards becoming world class in productivity, employment and skills be 2020”.
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