London’s business groups unveil “ambitious” roadmap to tackle skills crisis

An “ambitious” plan to tackle skills shortages, address inequality and boost labour market inclusion in London has been published by the city’s leading business groups, following the biggest data deep dive on the issues the capital has ever seen.

The Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) for London sets out a blueprint for getting more Londoners into better, higher-paying jobs by better matching training provision to employer demand.

It has been led by BusinessLDN, in partnership with Federation of Small Businesses London (FSB London), London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and CBI London, with the backing of the Mayor of London and funded by the Department for Education.

The LSIP identifies the need to help employers navigate the complex and fragmented skills system. It also highlights four cross-cutting themes that should be prioritised to future-proof the capital’s jobs market: digital skills, green skills, transferable skills and labour market inclusion.

Its recommendations include launching a new one-stop-shop to support job-seekers, creating a London Recruitment and Skills Support Hub to help businesses navigate the fragmented skills landscape and steps to boost digital and green skills across the capital.

Skills shortages are a drag on London’s economy and put the capital’s position as a world leading city at risk.

A survey of more than 1,000 London business leaders and HR managers conducted earlier this year by the four groups developing the LSIP found that three-quarters of firms (77 per cent) were reporting open vacancies and of those two-thirds (65 per cent) were struggling to fill them.

More than half (57 per cent) cited a low number of suitable applicants with the required skills as the biggest challenge to recruitment. While London’s workforce has the highest levels of qualifications in the country, businesses are facing severe skills gaps and struggling to recruit, retain and upskill staff to meet the requirements they need.

The capital’s unemployment is around 1 per cent higher than the national average and 21.9 per cent of the labour market was economically inactive for the three months ending January 2023 according to the Office for National Statistics.

John Dickie, chief executive at BusinessLDN, commented: “The capital urgently needs to tackle skills shortages to get more Londoners into jobs, reduce inequality and ensure businesses can access the people they need to grow.

“This roadmap sets out steps to future-proof London’s labour market by ensuring our skills system is fit for purpose as the transition to net zero and rapid technological change reshapes the jobs market.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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