From its origins in the mechanics’ institutes of the 19th century, further education has always been closely associated with skills that involve using one’s hands.

Dexterity was a necessary attribute for most workers during the Industrial Revolution. Whether they were employed in factories, mills or the engineering industry, physical and manual labour was in demand.

Fast-forward to today, and the world of work has changed beyond recognition. Gone is much of the backbreaking physical toil, at least in many Western post-industrial countries, and in its place has emerged a huge services industry. What has proved difficult to track, however, is exactly what impact this shift has had on day-to-day working life in different sectors - and whether our education system has managed to keep up with the demands of the changing workplace.

Until now. Researchers from the Centre for Vocational Education Research (CVER) at the London School of Economics have quantified these changes in the UK labour market. Andy Dickerson and Damon Morris, the authors of a new report, found that between 2002 and 2016 the use of manual skills in the workplace declined across areas of employment, while the use of analytical and interpersonal skills rose significantly.

Rather than physical skills, the jobs of today rely far more on a mental and emotional dexterity. The ability to deal deftly with both people and information is now in greater demand than ever among employers.

Given the changing nature of the employment market, these findings are perhaps not surprising. But they do raise a fundamental question about the nature of post-16 provision in the era of the so-called fourth industrial revolution: are we teaching the wrong things? Is it time to shift focus from occupation-specific knowledge and skills and instead concentrate on the much-maligned “soft skills” required by employers?

Data on the types of skills used in the UK workplace is not collected as comprehensively as in the US. To get around this, Dickerson and Morris applied the measures of tasks and skills from the American O*NET (Occupational Information Network). This system uses more than 200 descriptors of skills, abilities, work activities, training, work context and job characteristics that can be applied to each of around 1,000 different occupations found in the UK.

“Thus,” Dickerson and Morris write, “we develop a database of comprehensive and detailed multidimensional occupational skills profiles for the UK, which describe the utilisation of skills used in the workplace. These occupational skills profiles have many potential uses. For example, they can enable a much richer and deeper understanding of the changing patterns of the demand for skills to be developed.”

This proxy enabled the research team to construct three indices of skills: analytical/cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, and physical/manual skills. These were then combined with data on earnings from the Annual Surveys of Hours and Earnings and the Labour Force Survey to “provide a comprehensive picture of the changing demand for skills in the UK”.

The results “indicate strongly” the increasing use of both analytical skills and interpersonal skills, and the declining use of physical skills across the period 2002-2016 (see graph, opposite). Further analysis shows that the majority of the change in skills utilisation is “within occupations, rather than between occupations” - so the changes are widespread across all sectors, rather than being down to changes in the jobs market.

Not only are analytical skills and interpersonal skills more widely used, but they are also more valued by employers, who are paying more for them. As Dickerson puts it: “People are not their qualifications.” Their value in the workforce comes from how they utilise the skills they have acquired, not from the qualifications they have achieved.

“So much of what we understand and mean about education is focused around qualifications,” he says. “It is always about the value of the qualifications. Certifications may have been gained a long time ago. Take a computer scientist [who trained] in the 1970s: to what extent is what they learned in those days relevant today? Looking at how these skills are valued in the labour market, the knowledge that they have learned is less important than the skills they gain.”

Dickerson acknowledges that it would be hard to measure “intangible” analytical and interpersonal skills through qualifications. He says the research also shows that when comparing two people with identical sets of qualifications, if one uses more interpersonal skills in their work, they tend to earn more than their peer who does not. “These skills are less valued in education, but are more valued in the labour market,” he adds.

Fiona Aldridge, director for policy and research at the Learning and Work Institute, says that as demand for interpersonal and analytical skills grows, these skillsets cannot remain the preserve of learners taking only some programmes.

“As interpersonal and cognitive skills are attracting returns both in terms of greater employment opportunities and higher levels of income, we need to ensure that these are integrated into all pathways - be that academic or technical, both college-based and apprenticeships - and into study at all levels more widely,” she says.

“There are some significant changes to the labour market shown here over a 15-year period. Given that we are now starting to talk about the 50-year working life, we need to ensure that our education system does not too narrowly focus on the skills that are needed in the short term, without properly thinking about how we educate for a much longer working life.

“Of course, we won’t be able to anticipate some of the changes that will happen in the future, so it’s critical that initial education provides a firm and broad basis - including but not limited to English, maths, digital skills - that can be built on over time. It’s also critical that we create confident and resilient learners who know that they will be able to upskill and retrain as needed throughout their working life, and recognise that this is something people will have to do and that they are able to do.

“We also need to provide opportunities for adults to upskill and retrain throughout their lives - including the development of these interpersonal and analytical skills to complement their manual skills.”

The need for retraining, Aldridge adds, will occur while individuals are already in work, making models of part-time and flexible learning key. We must also ensure that such learning is affordable, both in terms of course fees and any knock-on costs for learners.

“Importantly, too, we will need to think about how we reach adults who are affected, many of whom will not be thinking about learning and training, and some of whom may be reluctant to train, especially if they’ve had a poor initial experience of education,” Aldridge says.

Despite the recognition of the importance of interpersonal and analytical skills in the workplace, these “soft skills” can sometimes be marginalised.

“One of the problems is there are so many terms - be they creativity, entrepreneurialism, critical thinking - because no one knows what to call these skills. When they are termed ‘soft skills’ for students, it can make them seem less important,” explains Bev Jones, joint chief executive of the Career Colleges Trust.

Research commissioned by the trust in 2016 shows that there is often a mismatch between what young people think employers are looking for from job applicants and what employers actually want. Young people think that potential bosses are looking for qualifications, but actually the thing they value most is interpersonal skills.

For Jones, there needs to be a big shift in education to match the evolving nature of employment. “There are going to be fewer jobs that require hands-on skills,” she says.

“We need to make sure that young people have plenty of opportunities to use these soft skills. In education, we’re used to particular subjects and traditional trades. Within each of these areas, there’s a real need for young people to be developing interpersonal and analytical skills.”

One way that these skills can be taught, Jones says, is through embedding project-based learning into lessons, as they do at Career Colleges.

“We base it on real-world problems set up by local employers, so they are situations [learners] could find in the workplace. It is routinely part of the learning process rather than just being a one-off project,” she explains.

“Research shows that these skills are becoming the most important for employers, who are more willing to train on the job and often are looking for the right work ethic from job candidates. It is, therefore, really important for young people to have an idea about what work is like. Project-based learning is really important and can be built into any curriculum, but it is also important for young people to develop these skills through independent study.

“I remember when BTECs had ‘core skills’ components where interpersonal and analytical skills were embedded. Secretarial courses also had a ‘how business operates’ module, which taught people about how the economy operates and the wider world.”

Dickerson and Morris found that the changes in skills use permeated all occupations, so for industries that still rely on manual skills, the rise of interpersonal skills and analytical skills will require changes in training and education.

Steve Radley, director of policy at the Construction Industry Training Board, agrees. While manual skills continue to be important in the industry, the increasing digitisation of construction necessitates a move away from the traditional approach to teaching bricklaying, say, in order to incorporate the greater range of skills needed - not least communication, team-working and problem-solving.

“It is critical that apprenticeships, FE and the overall education and training system get away from the current over-specialisation and provide broader-based learning,” he says.

Jason Hayward, business development manager at the Guild of Master Craftsmen, says that although demand for manual skills has been in decline, this has in part been down to consumers’ changing needs and a shift in our economic requirements. He adds: “There is still a huge demand for high-quality manual skills. Society has changed from the throwaway mentality of the ’80s and ’90s to a more ethically aware population now.

“This, in turn, has driven the need for high-quality craftspeople. The growth of analytical and interpersonal skills is a by-product of this, and, we feel, a good one - as to be a master in your skill these have to be understood, whether naturally or through education. We feel there is a need for discussion, at both academic and industry level, to see how a system of accreditation can be implemented, to champion levels of expertise within these fields.”

George Ryan is an FE reporter for Tes. He tweets @GeorgeMRyan

This article originally appeared in the 26 April 2019 issue under the headline “Are we all going soft?”