UK employers seek school-leavers with soft skills, finds quarterly CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook

Employers are placing much more emphasis on the soft skills of school leavers such as communication skills and work ethic than on literacy and numeracy, according to new research published today.

The latest CIPD/KPMG quarterly Labour Market Outlook, a survey of over 1,400 UK employers, shows that while a quarter of employers list literacy as one of the key attributes they are looking for when recruiting from the current crop of school leavers, and over a fifth list numeracy, the attributes that top the list are communication skills, work ethic ñ the basic desire to do a good job ñ and personality.

The report also reveals that when asked to assess the performance of school leavers at work, a third of employers believe that girls outperform boys, which compares with just 3% who find that the reverse is true. Although, 52% of employers report no difference in the quality of male and female school leavers.

Rebecca Clake, Organisation and Resourcing Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, comments,
ìIt has become almost an annual ritual to focus on the literacy and numeracy of school leavers ñ but our research shows employers want more focus on communication, interpersonal skills and developing a work ethic.

ìThese findings suggest that the education system might help close the ëemployability gapí by seeking to introduce more oral-based tests and more work experience schemes. Such changes may benefit boys in particular who are seen as having weaker communication skills ñ which may explain why employers are more likely to rate girls more highly than boys at work after leaving school.

ìSchool leavers themselves also need to take note that they are entering a competitive labour market. With a ready supply of willing and able workers throughout the EU, more people continuing or returning to work beyond the traditional retirement age, and government efforts to encourage long-term incapacity benefit claimants to return to work, school leavers who donít demonstrate a desire to work and the basic communication skills to thrive in the modern workplace, risk finding it hard to secure work.î

Sara Barraclough, Assistant Director, Education Advisory, KPMG comments,
ìOverall, this survey re-emphasises the need for employers to work closely together with schools, local and central Government to develop the soft, as well as the hard skills, school leavers need for the world of work. We, like many businesses, are involved in supporting numeracy and literacy in local schools but all employers need to think on how they can promote greater experience and knowledge of the workplace and how we can help develop a real sense of responsibility, integrity, teamwork and pride essential for a motivated and effective workforce.

ìFurther involvement in school activities, work shadowing and mentoring are all ways in which we can work together to help our future workforce have the best chance of gaining employment.î

Bill Rammell MP, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education comments,
ìThis yearís exam results have shown that todayís students are reaping the rewards from hard work at school. But those now entering the labour market need to recognise that this is not the end of the hard work. Todayís employers need a wide range of skills. Students, schools and employers need to work together to ensure that school leavers are ready for work. And the students themselves need to be prepared to keep engaging in lifelong learning to keep their skills up to date and attractive to employers.î

Key findings from the survey include:

The key attributes employers look for in school leaver recruits are communication skills (40% of employers rank this in their top three required attributes), work ethic (39%) and personality (32%). These rank higher than literacy (26%), numeracy (22%) and formal qualifications (25%).

Almost two-thirds of employers (64%) report no change in the quality of school leavers during the past five years. One in ten consider quality to have improved, citing improvements in qualifications and a more mature attitude to work. However, a higher proportion of employers (26%) indicate that quality has deteriorated, pointing to problems related to listening skills, numeracy, and attitudes to work.

Around half (52%) of employers report no difference in the quality of male and female school leavers. But the proportion rating females more highly than males (36%) greatly exceeds the proportion rating males more highly than females (3%).

A half of employers ranked improved interpersonal skills in their top three suggestions when asked what the education system might do to improve the employability of school leavers. This was followed by greater efforts to encourage young people to take responsibility (40%), improvements in communication skills (38%), and better discipline (32%). Employers are more likely to stress the need for improvement in such intangible skills than in literacy (28%), numeracy (22%) and IT skills (19%).

Among those employers that hire school-leavers, the most popular initiatives taken to help them make the transition into work are on-the-job training (cited by 86% of employers) and induction courses (83%). Just under half of employers surveyed (47%) offer apprenticeships. Around four in ten employers provide coaching and mentoring to school leavers while one in five employers provide training in literacy and numeracy.