Access key links:

Sub menu

National Strategic Skills Audit

The Audit provides detailed intelligence about the operation and structure of the labour market to inform the choices of individuals, employers and providers.

The skills system will operate most effectively, in a way that maximises economic prosperity, if high quality information is available. This information needs to enable all parties to make well-informed decisions about which areas of the economy are likely to provide opportunities in terms of high employment and high economic growth, and about areas of likely skills shortage and deficiencies now and in the future. The National Strategic Skills Audit provides this in one comprehensive piece of labour market research and analysis.

The first National Strategic Skills Audit for England, Skills for Jobs: Today and Tomorrow was published in March 2010. It consists of two main outputs  Volume 1 (Key Findings) (PDF, 1.3 Mb)  and Volume 2 (The Evidence Report) (PDF, 3.7 Mb) 

Approach

Skills for Jobs: Today and Tomorrow presents a comprehensive synthesis of information from a range of evidence sources. It draws on evidence from a number of key strands of work:

  • An initial national and regional LMI assessment drawing on a wide range of evidence sources including: The Labour Force Survey; The National Employers Skills Survey 2009; Working Futures 2007-2017; The UK Commission Employment and Skills Almanac 2009; The UK Commission’s Ambition 2020 report; the work of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)
  • 25 sector skills assessment reports produced by each of the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) on the sectors they cover: These reports draw on a mix of national data supplemented by sectoral surveys and other information and qualitative interviews with key sectoral stakeholders.
  • Six additional skills assessment reports focusing on ‘emerging sectors’, produced by SSCs working collaboratively in appropriate ‘clusters’. These reports focused on: advanced manufacturing; professional and financial services; low carbon industries; engineering construction; the digital economy; life sciences and pharmaceuticals.
  • Three additional skills assessment reports on three of the emerging sectors produced for the UK Commission by experts. These were: a report on strategic skills needs in the bio-medical sector, focussing on medical technologies and pharmaceutical industries, produced by the Institute for Employment Research (IER) at Warwick University; a report on skills needs in the low carbon energy generation sector produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); a report on the financial services sector produced by PwC.
  • A horizon scanning and scenario development report produced by the St Andrews Management Institute (SAMI): This report identifies key issues and changes taking place in the UK and globally which may impact on employment and skills over the long-term using horizon scanning techniques.

The diagram below illustrates these key strands and how they fed into the overall National Strategic Skills Audit:

Reports

The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010

Underpinning Evidence Reports:

SSC Reports on Emerging Sectors

These reports can be accessed via the web pages of the relevant SSCs as follows:

SSC Sector Skills Assessment Reports:

These reports can be accessed via the web pages of the SSCs:

The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales 2011

In June 2011 the UK Commision published The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales 2011, produced in conjunction with the Welsh Government. It comprises of two volumes: