Young Londoners will be opening their exam results with trepidation later this month and potentially considering their future career path.
Having overcome such adversity during the pandemic, students choosing to enter the world of work will find the skills they need to succeed are rapidly changing due to technological advances and the race to reach net zero.
At the same time, businesses across the capital are grappling with severe skills shortages that are acting as a barrier to improving growth and holding back productivity.
The capital’s skills system is not working nearly well enough for Londoners, employers, or educators. Despite the city having the highest levels of qualifications in the country, unemployment is paradoxically around one per cent higher than the national average, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Meanwhile, a BusinessLDN survey of more than 1,000 business leaders and HR managers in the capital earlier this year found that three-quarters of firms (77%) were reporting open vacancies and of those two-thirds (65%) were struggling to fill them.
More than half (57%) cited a low number of suitable applicants with the required skills as the biggest challenge to recruitment.
There is a real risk this skills gap widens further in coming years as the rise of Artificial Intelligence, digitalisation and a growing focus on sustainability, will transform the city’s jobs market for those entering it and those already in work.
That’s why we’ve joined forces with other London business groups to create a roadmap to tackle this skills crisis and future-proof the capital’s labour market.
The Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), produced with the backing of businesses, education providers, the Mayor of London and funded by the Department for Education, sets out an ambitious plan to tackle skills shortages, address inequality and get more Londoners into better, higher-paying jobs by ensuring training provision matches employer demand.
It represents the biggest ever data deep dive on London’s labour market, involving around 1000 key stakeholders spanning all sectors of the economy and types of training providers.
The LSIP sets out a series of practical steps that business, educators and London government can take together to boost sought after skills, including digital and green, across the capital.
Among its recommendations are launching a new one-stop-shop to support jobseekers, creating a London Recruitment and Skills Support Hub to help businesses navigate the plethora of options available and embedding important transferable skills in training courses, like critical thinking and communications.
Improving digital skills is also a priority. Employers across all sectors currently lack digital skills at both ends of the spectrum – advanced and basic. At the same time, too many Londoners are unable to access reliable broadband or even a laptop, while not enough can code or take advantage of the opportunities offered by cloud computing.
Tackling digital exclusion is vital in the age of hybrid working and needs to go hand in hand with action to embed essential digital skills as a core part of the curriculum from a young age. This will require a broad-based coalition including the Greater London Authority, boroughs, employers, educators and other business bodies working with the likes of the London Office of Technology & Innovation to redouble efforts in getting free devices and training courses into the hands of disadvantaged Londoners.
A new London Digital Skills Partnership should also be created to bring together the expertise of the private sector and the capital’s leading educators to co-design courses, especially in areas with fast-changing advanced and cutting-edge technology such as AI and data analytics.
London is a beacon for talent and opportunity. Only by tackling skills shortages, addressing inequality and boosting labour market inclusion can our city live up to its true potential. Students, workers and businesses need a skills system that allows them to seize the opportunities presented by the jobs of tomorrow if we’re going to raise productivity and accelerate economic growth.
