All hands on deck

Navigating the unchartered graduate labour market waters during and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to new graduates

Skills utilisation : definition, theories, approaches and measures

Skills have become a major competitive factor for many countries and have been emphasised in national economic and social policies (OECD, 2011). It is therefore not surprising that governments at all levels in the EU – supra - national, national and sub - national – have skills strategies. These strategies have typically centred on boosting the supply and stock of skills in the labour market. The European Commission’s Agenda for New Skills and Jobs (2012) is one such example, arguing for a higher - skilled workforce across the EU through investment in training and education. However, for most companies, skills, in the form of workforce development is a third - order consideration after business development and organisational development (Warhurst and Findlay, 2012). As a consequence, whilst many companies have business strategies that include skills, few have skill s strategies per se. Boosting the supply of skills on the labour market is therefore important but not sufficient: these skills need to be put to use within companies. Without considering how skills are used, the potential exists for creating a mismatch between skills supply and demand (Keep and Mayhew, 1999; Warhurst and Thompson, 1999). Indeed, this problem seems evident in the context of ongoing ‘over - qualification’ amongst the workforces of the advanced economies (Felstead et al, 2017; Livingstone, 2017) resulting in ‘untapped talent’ at best (Skills Australia, 2012b) or, at worst, a waste of human resources (OECD, 2011) within companies. As governments refresh their skill s strategies, there is an increasingly pressing need for a framework to assist the design and implementation of new policies that encompass both skill s supply and demand (OECD, 2011; EC, 2012). Understanding skill s utilisation has become important in this context. Skill s utilisation refers to the way that employers use the skills of their employees (Ashton and Sung, 2011). Employees’ use of skills is shaped not only by their own abilities but also by the human resource practices adopted by companies, which in turn are shaped by the choices that managers, as employers in loco, make about how to manage and organise their workplaces (Ashton et al, 2017). These choices can lever or impede skill s utilisation and can have negative and positive outcomes for companies. Skill s under - utilisation can lead to a loss of human capital and reduced productivity and job satisfaction (OECD, 2011). Unused skills can also degrade or be lost over time (Clark, 1995). By contrast, better use of skills can improve companies’ innovation, profitability and productivity as well as employee s’ job satisfaction, engagement and retention (Skills Australia, 2012b). Significantly, skill use is not predetermined; choices exist and there is policy scope for government s to help support better skill s utilisation within companies (Warhurst and Findlay, 2012; OECD, 2017). Good information about skill s utilisation is therefore needed. Generating this information requires addressing two key tasks: defining and measuring skill s utilisation. This background paper focuses on these tasks. Its aim is to inform how the European Company Survey (ECS) 2019 can capture skill s utilisation at the company level in the EU. The paper has four main sections. The first focuses on the definition of skills utilisation. The second section identifies the theoretical drivers of skill use within companies. The third section reviews existing survey measures of skill s in companies, including in the ECS 2013. The fourth section offers recommendations for including measures of skills utilisation in the ECS 2019. Annex A lists the surveys analysed for this paper; Annex B lists possible questions about skill s utilisation for inclusion in the ECS 2019

"It's not already laid out for you in a small company" : UK graduates' knowledge and skills utilisation in small and large businesses

Small firms have been highlighted by the UK government as potential graduate employers, in the context of an expanding higher education system and slow growth in 'traditional' graduate jobs. But it is unclear whether graduates working in small firms would have similar opportunities to use their knowledge and skills and develop their careers as would graduates working in large companies. This thesis investigated this issue using a mixed-methods approach informed by small business and career theories. A targeted statistical analysis of a national longitudinal dataset of UK graduates currently in their early careers (Futuretrack) was followed up with interviews with a strategically selected sub-sample of 20 graduates employed in business and public service associate professional occupations. Little association was found between employer size and graduates' use of the knowledge and skills developed during their university degrees. However, some evidence suggested that the ways in which graduates were taking on additional responsibilities differed by employer size: larger companies were more likely to have formal career development programs in place and graduates were able to take opportunities, while small companies tended to have less formal arrangements, so that graduates had to be more self-reliant and make opportunities to develop their jobs. However, graduates in small businesses tended to reach a career plateau relatively quickly, which compelled them to change employers. Most of these graduates, however, thought that their experience in small businesses had helped them go on to get better jobs. The main contribution of this thesis is the finding that, even in a narrowly defined occupation and industry group, business size has a partial and qualified effect on graduates' experience of work and career development. The findings also have significant implications for policy, recommending that graduates' career development opportunities be taken into account when encouraging graduates to work in small firms

‘Virtuous’ and ‘vicious’ circles? Adults’ participation in different types of training in the UK and its association with wages

The relationship between education, skills and labour market outcomes is becoming an increasingly pressing issue in many countries. In the UK, recent changes in education and skills funding structures and the ongoing consequences of the 2008 recession may have affected participation in training. ‘Virtuous’ and ‘vicious’ circles of learning may exist, whereby access to training is associated with social advantage, and training begets more training. We explore workers’ participation in different types of training and how this is associated with wages using the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Our exploratory findings suggest that those working in lower-level occupations may not only be less likely to undertake training in general, but also less likely to have done types of training associated with wage increases (e.g., to meet occupational standards), and more likely to have done training associated with no or negative changes in wages (e.g., health and safety) compared to those working in higher-level occupations. We suggest that further research is needed to unpack the ‘black box’ of training and its impacts upon different groups of people. We discuss the implications of our findings to help break the ‘vicious’ circles

Employability programmes and work placements in higher education : a review of published evidence on employability programmes and work placements in UK higher education

Given the recent focus on the employability and earnings of university graduates in the UK, there is a need to explore the employability initiatives offered by higher education institutions (HEIs). Work placements and work experience offered through HEIs aim to improve students’ job readiness, and ability to secure suitable jobs after graduation, but little is known about the work experience opportunities available, who can access them, and their impact on individuals, institutions and employers