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NORTH YORKSHIRE CONTEXT
1.0 ECONOMIC, BUSINESS, LEARNING AND LABOUR MARKET
1.1 York and North Yorkshire is one of the four sub-regions within the Yorkshire and the Humber region and covers an area comprising of the Unitary Authority of York and the county of North Yorkshire, which comprises seven local authority districts. According to the 2001 census, the county of North Yorkshire has a population of 569,660. The main centres of population in the sub-region (York and North Yorkshire) are within the districts of York (24%), Harrogate (20%) and Scarborough (14%). Together these districts make up over half of the population in the overall sub-region.
1.2 In York and North Yorkshire, 98.4% of the population is classified as White, with the remaining 1.6% classified as Black Ethnic Minorities (BME). Within York, 97.8% are considered White, with 2.2% within BME groups. This figure is double of that seen for North Yorkshire (1.1%).
1.3 Qualification levels recorded in the 2001 census show that of all adults (16-74 year olds), 21.6% were qualified to NVQ Level 4 or higher, compared to 16.4% regionally and 19.8% in England and Wales.
Scarborough had the lowest proportion of highly qualified residents (16.1%), while Harrogate had the highest proportion (24.8%). The district with the highest proportion of residents with numeracy problems is estimated to be Scarborough, while Ryedale is estimated to have the highest proportion of residents with literacy problems. Harrogate has the lowest proportion of residents with literacy and numeracy problems across all districts.
1.4 When considering those who are economically active and of ‘working age’, the proportion at NVQ Level 2 increases to 33% and the proportion without any qualifications falls to 10%.
1.5 Within York and North Yorkshire just over half of secondary schools have sixth form provision, with FE provision including seven colleges and a number of other FE outreach centres. In addition to sixth form and FE provision, it is also important to consider both Work-Based-Learning (WBL) and Adult and Community Learning (ACL) provision.
1.6 In 2004, 94% of year 11 school leavers in the sub-region continued in Education Employment and Training (EET). The percentage of students Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) is 4.5%.
1.7 Of all individuals of a working age, 84% see themselves as economically active. Within the sub-region, the districts of Harrogate (88%), Craven and Hambleton (both 87%) have the highest percentages. The highest proportion of unemployed people is found in Scarborough.
1.8 There are approximately 32,000 organisations in York and North Yorkshire, with 82% of those employing 10 or less people. Of these, 25,036 are based in the county of North Yorkshire with an even greater incidence of smaller firms (with 84% employing 10 or less people) than the sub-region as a whole. In contrast, less than 1% of organisations have 200+ employees. However, these do account for 25% of employees in the sub-region.
1.9 In York and North Yorkshire, around half of those working are employed within four industries, namely wholesale and retail (17%), manufacturing (13%), health and social work (11%) and real estate and business (10%)
1.10 Looking at this using the clusters and sectors definitions, the largest number of establishments is seen in retail (8,191), with this also having the largest number of employees (65,853). This is followed by the generic sector with 5,360 establishments and 44,525 employees.
1.11 The highest volumes of employment in the sub-region are seen in managerial occupations (15%), closely followed by skilled trades (14%) and associate professional/technical staff (14%). Elementary occupations (porters, farm workers etc) also account for 12% of employment.
1.12 Employment is expected to increase by around 9,800 full time equivalency posts by 2010. It is predicted that this growth will be mainly due to increases in the volume and demand for more part-time employees. There are also variations seen by industry, eg. the most significant growth (in terms of volume) in demand by the end of the decade is likely to be seen in:
Hotels and Catering Health Education Transport Industries
1.13 Occupational and employment forecasts also look at qualification demand forecasts for the sub-region. In terms of volume, the highest growth is forecast at NVQ Level 2.
2.0 Employers’ Skills needs
2.1 The National Employers’ Skills Survey 2003 showed that within York and North Yorkshire around 22% of employers had vacancies. This is estimated to equate to 11,800 vacancies, or around 3.5% of employment. Faced with such skills shortage difficulties, employers had increased advertising/recruitment spend (52%), expanded recruitment channels (50%) and increased training for internal staff (46%).
2.2 With regard to the existing workforce, 27% of employers had internal skills gaps, which was 5 percentage points higher than seen nationally. Within the sub-region this is estimated to account for around 38,600 people.
2.3 The main causes of skills gaps included a lack of experience (79%) and recruitment problems (40%). Similar to vacancies, key skills lacking were generic ‘skills’, such as communication (72%) and customer handling (70%).
2.4 To address skills gaps, the main actions taken were to provide further training, employers implementing changes to working practices and relocating work within the company. When asked about barriers to having a fully skilled workforce, these included a lack of cover and time for training and a lack of funding.
2.5 The survey also found that only 40% of employers stated that they had a training plan.
2.6 Of the 52% of employees who had received training during the previous year the greatest incidence of training activity was job-specific (86%), health and safety (78%), training in new technology (57%) and induction (57%).
2.7 Throughout the survey there were clear differences by industry. Transport and construction were the least likely to have training plans, assess skills gaps or provide training.