£270m wasted recruiting for ‘hard-to-fill’ jobs

A report published by online education service LearnDirect has shown that approximately £270 million is wasted a year as companies fail to find the right candidates for ‘hard to fill’ positions. This is despite an average of over 20 people applying for each job in some areas, and unemployment expected to reach 2.9 million over the next year.

A YouGov poll featured in the report concluded that a lack of relevant skills was one of the three main reasons for high unemployment, alongside high competition and unsettled external economic circumstances.

In their report, entitled ‘Work ready? Get fit for the job’, LearnDirect suggested various means of tackling the lack of relevant training, including measures to prepare young adults for a practical work environment, and encouraging employers to be more specific about their expectations of potential employees.

The report made 10 specific recommendations aimed at improving skills in order to ‘help to smooth the recruitment process for employers and
jobseekers while saving millions of pounds.’

LearnDirect  also encouraged many to seek alternative routes of accreditation. The company suggests ‘offering young people an alternative to traditional classroom-taught maths and English’ with an emphasis to learning online, which may give candidates the edge in achieving these ‘hard-to-fill’ roles.

In an effort to ‘boost employability’, LearnDirect suggested taking an online course much like the ones they offer. Over 600,000 people have achieved a maths, English or IT qualification through their online training provision.

In an effort to bring the benefit of their findings to a wider audience, Learndirect intend to begin a programme of street theatre, which will help jobseekers with their CVs, their interview style and also overall confidence.

Both the report and street theatre activity are part of LearnDirect’s ‘Make it Count’ campaign, in which young people are engaged with programmes to challenge them and encourage them to learn new skills, in the hope that they will improve their job prospects.which aims to encourage people to learn new skills and get the qualifications they need to improve their job prospects.

Louise Macfadyen