Business

Employers urged to invest in vocational training for jobless

NINE out of 10 businesses in Northern Ireland fear that a skills shortage will slam the brakes on the region's economic recovery, according to a new survey.

Some 89 per cent of firms polled by the Prince's Trust youth charity and HSBC bank believe a significant skills crisis will hit the north within the next three years.

More than half (59 per cent) predict it will happen within the next 12 months, according to its polling.

Thirty-eight per cent of the businesses surveyed in Northern Ireland are already experiencing skills gaps within their organisations and more than two-fifths have been unable to fill vacancies over the past year as a result.

With around a third of organisations in the north reporting skills shortages at entry level (32 per cent), youth charity The Prince's Trust is calling on employers to invest in vocational training for unemployed young people to avoid future skills shortages.

Ian Jeffers, director of the Prince's Trust in Northern Ireland, said: "It is deeply concerning that employers in Northern Ireland are struggling to fill vacancies when we have thousands of unemployed young people who are desperate for work.

"The current economic recovery is encouraging but in order to sustain this growth, UK plc needs to invest in the next generation to avoid a skills vacuum in the future.

"We are urging businesses to take action now to up-skill the workforce of the future to prevent the bubbling skills crisis from boiling over. It's essential we invest in young people now and equip them with the skills that both they and businesses need to thrive."

The Prince's Trust charity aims to help 58,000 unemployed young people this year, providing vocational training in sectors with identified skills shortages such as construction, retail and logistics - and it has called on more employers to help increase the number of young people it can support this year.

Among those helped by the Prince's Trust (it has supported 750,000 young people since being set up in 1976) is Danielle Mulholland (21) from west Belfast, who was unemployed for 12 months prior to completing its 'Get Into Retail' Programme with Lidl.

"Having trained as a hairdresser I had no confidence in my abilities to work in retail. Hairdressing was my dream job but I took a reaction to the chemicals in hair colorants which made it impossible for me to work in that sector," she said.

Danielle was left with the uncertainty about what to do next and it hit her hard.

"But after I signed up for the 'Get Into Retail' programme I did my work placement in the Stewartstown Road Lidl store and loved it.

I wasn't sure that re-training in retail was the right move for me but I'm so glad that I did it and can't believe I've now got a full-time job."