{"id":48369,"date":"2014-10-06T08:36:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T08:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=bce99b9ad1da51da941019e85374b8d1"},"modified":"2014-10-06T08:36:37","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T08:36:37","slug":"press-release-new-research-shows-skills-shortages-may-create-bumps-in-road-for-logistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=48369","title":{"rendered":"Press release: New research shows skills shortages may create bumps in road for logistics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Rapidly evolving technology in the logistics sector may mean many firms risk being left behind competitors &#8211; with more staff and younger workers needed to ensure employers can keep up to speed, new findings show. <\/p>\n<p>The report, published today by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (<abbr title=\"UK Commission for Employment and Skills\">UKCES<\/abbr>), finds that the sector, which contributes over \u00a390bn annually to the UK economy, faces skills shortfalls and recruitment difficulties, with over 1.2m extra jobs required by 2022. <\/p>\n<p>Douglas McCormick, Commissioner at <abbr title=\"UK Commission for Employment and Skills\">UKCES<\/abbr>, said: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause logistics underpins the operation of so many other businesses we often do not think about it by itself, but its overall contribution to the economy is huge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs over 60% of goods in the UK are moved by road, driver shortages would cause serious knock-on effects to the rest of the economy. It is vital, therefore, that employers ensure they are investing in training and recruiting new talent into the sector to provide a steady stream of skilled workers in the years to come.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The rapid rise of technology means multi-skilled roles are now the norm, with the introduction of new technology, including GPS systems and electronic signature scanners, and more customer-facing work causing problems in the existing workforce as well as difficulties recruiting new entrants. <\/p>\n<p>The report, Understanding skills and performance challenges in the logistics sector, also found that IT knowledge, customer service and communication are seen as new must-haves for staff. <\/p>\n<p>Michael Davis, chief executive at <abbr title=\"UK Commission for Employment and Skills\">UKCES<\/abbr>, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaking on young talent can be an effective way of bringing new skills and technical experience to an employer &#8211; yet at present only 9% of the workforce in the logistics sector is aged under 25.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout investing more in getting young people into the industry and ensuring they are given the skills they need there is a very real risk that the existing talent pool will dry up &#8211; causing serious consequences for the rest of the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read the report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/understanding-skills-and-performance-challenges-in-the-logistics-sector\">Understanding skills and performance challenges in the logistics sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) shows logistics firms risk being left behind if they fail to tackle skills shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}