Today’s post comes courtesy of Lorna Tyrtania, ThirdForce Senior Product Manager
The Sector Skills Council for the Hospitality Sector People 1st have published their State of the Nation 2010 report. The report reveals how the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry has fared over the last tough year for the sector and what growth is predicted for the future.
The sector is one of the UK’s largest employers employing just less than 2 million people and equating to 7% of all UK jobs and representing 4.5% of the UK’s total economic output.
Taking as our focus the skills and training elements of the report, it rather alarmingly showed that despite a significant investment by both employers and the UK government skills gaps in the current workforce were judged to have grown, and more employers are now reporting that they are recruiting more staff lacking the required skills than they were two years ago.
In common with last year’s report Customer Service Skills dominate the skills gap across the sector with 65% of businesses now reporting staff lacking these skills, a 10% increase on the numbers reporting this last year.
In response to the widening skills gaps 67% of employers are now providing training this is a higher proportion than ever before and even the recession has not dented that resolve with 59% of employers reporting no change in the levels of training they provide and a visionary 14% actually increased their training in an effort to optimize their growth in the green shoots of a slow recovery. Looking forward employers are keen to continue investing in their best asset “their staff” with 54% of employers providing the same amount of training and 21% predicting a growth in 2010.
Also the number of employees engaging with industry related Apprenticeships has continued to rise over the last three years.
While trading is expected to be tough in 2010 as disposable income reduces, the sector needs to gear up for growth. By 2017, total employment is predicted to grow by nearly 10 percent with 208,000 additional jobs and when replacement demand is taken into account, projections indicate that a total of 1,063,000 additional people will be required to work in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector. Strong managerial skills will be essential as it is anticipated there will be 69,000 additional managerial posts by 2017.
Brian Wisdom Chief Excutive of the People 1st summarises the opportunities for the future as follows:
- “Golden Decade of Sporting Events” with opportunities for growth stimulated by the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. A step change in customer service skills will be required to create a lasting legacy of tourism post event.
- Retention and Productivity – retaining well motivated staff, as mobility options increase for employees in the recovery. Research cited showed employees staying with companies for 6.5 years compared to 4.4 years for those that don’t offer training.
- UK businesses failing to embrace and use new technology such as on-line trading and the benefits of technology enabled upskilling of their staff – IT skills were reported as the main skills that need improving amongst the sectors owner managers.
Encouragingly, the economic downturn does not appear to have effected the amount of training business provide their staff (59 percent of businesses said they offer the same amount in 2010 as in 2009, while 14 percent provided more training). However, how training is delivered appears to have been affected with 51 percent moving more training in-house.
Of the 34 percent of sector employers who indicated in 2009 that they intended to seek government funding for training, only six percent actually did so, most likely as a result of cuts in the availability of funded provision.
On a positive note, with training spend at £2,575 per head compared to an all industry average of £1,725, the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector is one of the top five largest spending sectors on training of the economy.
Worryingly, more sector employers report that their staff do not have the necessary skills to meet their business needs “ rising from 19 percent two years ago to 26 percent in 2009. 180,000 people working in the sector are not considered to be fully proficient in their jobs “a significant increase of 40,000 since 2007.
The biggest skills gaps cited by employers within the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry were around management and leadership, chef skills, and customer service skills. IT skills were also cited and the type required will vary but will include maximising the potential of social media, e-marketing, website design and producing applications for mobile phones.
While trading is expected to be tough in 2010 as disposable income reduces, the sector needs to gear up for growth. By 2017, total employment is predicted to grow by nearly 10 percent with 208,000 additional jobs and when replacement demand is taken into account, projections indicate that a total of 1,063,000 additional people will be required to work in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector. Strong managerial skills will be essential as it is anticipated there will be 69,000 additional managerial posts by 2017.
Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st concluded: Investment and ongoing professional development is essential to the continued success of the UK’s hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry. Whilst training levels have substantially improved, People 1st continues to ensure that this money is spent in the most economic way, improving the situation for employers, employees and service levels across the sector.
