Britain may have got talent on TV - but it is rapidly disappearing in the workplace.
Two out of three of the UK’s most highly-trained and experienced people (66%) are not using their specialist skills at work, research has revealed. The findings are part of a survey, The Western European Location Skills Audit, carried out by Oxford Intelligence, which focused on foreign direct investment strategies for governments, international corporates and economic development agencies.
Despite the economic downturn and concerns over skill losses due to the recession, demand is still high for workers with many specific skills, according to Oxford Intelligence. "If the UK is going to compete more effectively in the international market and prepare for the upturn, both businesses and government need to find ways of reconnecting with skilled workers," said Peter Lemagnen, Managing Director of Oxford Intelligence.
This first-ever large scale survey of the available skilled workforce across eight "hard-to-find" skill sets in 10 key countries shows the UK has Europe’s most skilled workforce. But, paradoxically, it has a very high proportion of trained workers not using valuable skills. Sectors affected span IT, financial services, food sciences, life sciences, nanotechnology, environmental and renewable energy and advanced engineering.
Despite this, British talent performs ahead of all of its European neighbours - with the UK ranked overall No1 in the Locations Skills Index within the report, and is in first or second positions in technical IT; engineering; life sciences; financial services and food technologies. "Companies based outside Europe looking at investment in Europe consistently view 'availability of highly-skilled labour' as the leading driver for their investment decisions, way above subsidies," said Lemagnen. "This bodes well for the UK’s drive to attract dynamic companies."
The survey has revealed Europe’s lost talent across key knowledge sectors, including IT, life sciences and advanced engineering. While the European average is 59%, some sectors fare worse than others. Food sciences, life sciences and nanotechnology have the worst retention levels (25-40%), followed closely by financial services, environmental & renewable energy, and advanced engineering.
The UK is under-utilising its skilled workers to a higher degree than other nations. According to the report, Britain has 3.2 million fluent language speakers, of which only 31% are currently using their languages at work. Some 2.6 million people have advanced engineering skills in the UK, yet only 42% use these skills, leaving a significant resource of 1.5 million. "The positive outlook is that the UK has a strong skills resource and that potential solutions are at hand," said Lemagnen.
"Oxford Intelligence is planning to complete further research to identify patterns in the latent talent pool that could lead to new initiatives for Government and industry to best attract and utilise the pool. There is a major opportunity for the UK and the EU to develop low-cost, practical initiatives to address the talent shortage in the short-term." Recommendations from Oxford Intelligence for remedial action include initiatives and research into demographic factors, employer flexibility, commuting patterns, gender divide and links to academic achievement.
