Skills gap will widen over coming decade, Government warns

A
Government study released today warns of acute skills shortage in British
industry in the coming decade.

Skills
Minister John Healey predicts that thousands of jobs could be left vacant
because the UK workforce does not have the skills to fill them.

The
report, by the DfES and the Learning Skills Council, claims that one in 10
employers are already experiencing shortages.

Demand
triggered by retirement is expected to create five times more job openings than
new vacancies by the end of the decade.

"Much
more needs to be done to improve our performance in information technology,
numeracy and management," Healey is expected to tell employers in London.

"We
could end up with thousands of jobs in key sectors being vacant because we
simply do not have enough people with the right skills to do them."

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The
report also shows that adults working in the UK spend very little time on
training, according to the Financial Times.

By Paul Nelson