John Rogers on the future workforce
John Rogers on future workforce
Do you ever think what the health sector might look like in 2012? Or even 2020? There are no surveys with the answers but my instinct is that a 'yes' response would be very low - and even those who did say yes would not have a clear vision of what the future holds.
In the current hurly-burly, our focus is on today and hitting year-end targets. Some of us are looking towards 2008, or even have three-year plans but 2012 is a lifetime away. And 2020? Well we will all be retired, or dreaming of it.
If we do not know what the health sector will look like in 2012, it is even less likely we know what workforce we will need or what the general labour market will look like. Is this really important or will things just resolve themselves?
The
Leitch Review of Skills , carried out by Lord Leitch on behalf of the Treasury looked at the UK's optimal skill mix in 2020 and makes interesting reading. At the moment, over one third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school-leaving qualification - double the proportion of Canada and Germany. Five million people have no qualifications at all and one in six does not have the literacy skills expected of an 11-year old.
The health sector has one of the most highly qualified workforces in the UK. Yet it also manages to reflect the failings of the wider UK workforce in having a high proportion of individuals with little or no training or qualifications. Despite numerous national initiatives, the health sector does not use all the talents of its workforce.
The strong message coming out of the
Leitch Review is that we need to ‘raise our game’ on skills. The current prognosis is that even if we achieve the challenging targets set by the Department for Education and Skills, our UK workforce will still not be competitive in global terms.
Other sectors - across areas as varied as engineering, construction, e-skills and the creative industries - are now making serious investments in future skills through work with schools, colleges and universities. The health sector has a long tradition of understanding the correlation between workforce skills and patient care, but there is a strong feeling that we also need to raise our game on skills if we are going to compete for the best staff in 2020. Looking at projections for the UK economy, the labour market is set to tighten over the next five years. At the same time, demand for healthcare grows at a relentless pace and while we are meeting many of today's challenges, there is a nagging feeling that we are storing up too many medium-term problems in the workforce arena.
Of course all is not doom and gloom. Innovation, creativity and endless enthusiasm for workforce development are clearly alive and kicking across many parts of the healthcare sector. Even so, on a sector-wide basis we cannot claim that skills development is seen as an investment for the future, yet it is the key area that will give organisations the competitive edge on productivity and higher quality patient care.
We must start thinking of skills as a long-term investment if we are to keep pace with other major sectors in attracting and retaining the best talent to create the skilled and flexible workforce we need for the future.
John Rogers
Chief Executive
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