【導(dǎo)讀】DeputyDirector,Coventry,CV47AL,Employers?Targets. Crimeanddrugabuse. ongoing.ssecurity”.1.Skill?shortages?leaguetables?own.The?shortage?isparative.2.Skills?shortages?workforce).done.ofresearch.

　　

【正文】 KILL USAGE Two main issues: ? Gradually rising levels of overqualification ? Slow (now stalled), and very patchy spread of High Performance Work Organisation (HPWO), high involvement work practices, etc. Work anisation and job design is often impoverished, produces many highly routines jobs and limits the discretion, creativity and ability to utilise skill of much of the workforce. SKILLS ALONE ARE NOT ENOUGH Realisation that although skills are important, and supplying more of them is a prerequisite for progress, skills produce results in bination with other factors. Thus recent thinking on the UK?s patchy record on productivity now acknowledges that there are other weaknesses that must be tackled: ? Poor record on Ramp。D ? Very poor record on investment in plant and equipment over many decades ? Low levels of innovation ? Poor public infrastructure (. transport) The challenge covers the need to move to a new model of petitive advantage. THE PORTER REPORT Michael Porter and colleagues were missioned to report on the health of the UK economy. They concluded: The UK currently faces a transition to a new phase of economic development. The old approach to economic development is reaching the limits of its effectiveness, and government, panies and other institutions need to rethink their policy priorities…..We find the petitiveness agenda facing UK leaders in government and business reflects the challenges of moving from a location peting on relatively low costs of doing business to a location peting on unique value and innovation. (Porter and Ketels, 2020: 5) THE PIU WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT The Prime Minister missioned the Cabi Office?s Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) to undertake a followup to the NSTF. Its aim was to address some of the fundamental issues left hanging by the NSTF. The PIU?s inquiry reached conclusions that changed the fundamental direction of VET policy. It argued that: ? Weak demand for skill was as much a problem as poor supply. ? Besides possible market failure, there was also systems failure underpinning a partial Low Skills Equilibrium in the economy. ? Skills are a derived demand – derived from and driven by business need. The key for policy was to impact on business strategy: Workforce development needs to be addressed in the wider context of government and business strategies towards product strategy, innovation, market positioning, IT, human resources policies and so on. A DAWNING REALISATION THAT SKILLS ARE THE EASY BIT…….. THE BAD NEWS IS: upskilling is the easy bit. If a government is willing to spend taxpayers? money on a large enough scale, a much more highly qualified workforce is achievable, as the UK has proved. Deriving benefit from this is the hard part. Ensuring that higher levels of skill are really needed and get used to maximum productive effect is the new challenge. One for which AngloSaxon style public policy is poorly prepared. ‘SKILLS CRISIS’ AS A RHETORICAL DEVICE IS STARTING TO LOOK TIRED ? Skills shortages are modest and concentrated in certain sectors and occupations ? Skills gaps are mainly transitory ? Over, not under, qualification is being a problem ? Massive increases in skill supply have not ?solved? our problems with relatively low levels of productivity. Increasingly, the question for policy makers is: Skills in bination with what else, makes the difference? SKILLS AND WHAT ELSE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE? ? Highly sophisticated and demanding customers (at home amp。 overseas) with ine levels that allow them to purchase high spec, high valueadded goods and services. ? High levels of Ramp。D (public and private) and innovation ? Investment in new technology, plant and munications ? Patient and knowledgeable capital ? Legal, social and cultural infrastructure that encourage working between firms ? High levels of social cohesion and stability ? An efficient, responsive and adequately resourced skills supply system in which ability and achievement, rather than social background and mode and place of study determine labour market outes. ? An open and efficient labour market ? High performance workplaces, peting on the basis of quality, paying high wages and offering as much job security as possible, within which employee relations systems and practices encourage partnership, high trust relationships and skills development. THIS SETS THE SCALE OF CHALLENGE FOR PUBLIC POLICY FINAL THOUGHTS ? The foregoing does not mean we can neglect our skills supply system, but it does mean that it is now pointless to pretend that supplying more skills will, of itself, solve our economic and social problems. ? Policy needs to embrace the supply, demand and usage of skill if it is to make further progress.