A third of British people are worried about starting a second career - but only a quarter are willing to fund their training themselves, new research shows.
A report published today by City and Guilds Group and Burning Glass Technologies says that almost two-thirds of Britain’s working population expect the job market to worsen this year - but just 16 per cent understand how their skills would transfer to another career.
Researchers surveyed more than 1,000 adults at the beginning of January - and when they were asked to consider changing careers to move into new industries, a fifth (21 per cent) said they lacked knowledge of other sectors, and around the same number (19 per cent) expressed an overall lack of confidence.
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Last year, the government launched the Lifetime Skills Guarantee to support adults who need to retrain or reskill as a result of losing their job due to the pandemic. The guarantee involves adults without an A level or equivalent qualification being offered a free, fully funded FE course to try and provide them with “skills valued by employers”.
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Kirstie Donnelly, chief executive of City and Guilds Group, said that it is not easy for people to understand where their current skills and experience can be put to good use.
“The UK faces a new reality, where a job for life is no longer ‘the norm’. But Covid-19 has accelerated some of the changes happening in our economy and brought new ones into play,” she said.
“We want to help people realise the potential of their transferable skills, so they are able to match these up to the jobs that are still available. Our Skills Bridges programme will help people that might find themselves out of work or looking for a change to identify the transferable skills that could help them unlock a completely new career path.
“If you’re an employer from a growth industry, we would encourage you to take a more flexible approach to recruitment and recognise the untapped potential in people working in industries with related or transferable skills. This can offer a new lease of life for businesses and those affected by changes to our labour market, and help kickstart the economy. Ensuring no one is left behind will take a large-scale collective effort led by the government. We hope they listen to the real and practical solutions laid out in our report and act now.”
Researchers found that those aged between 25 and 34 were the most reluctant to change careers, with a lack of knowledge of other jobs (31 per cent), worries about starting all over again (41 per cent), the cost of retraining (21 per cent), and the salaries of other careers (32 per cent) more concerning than for any other age group. Around one in 10 (11 per cent) said they were seeking change because the pandemic had fundamentally altered their current jobs.
The research also highlights the most popular jobs at the moment: adverts for couriers have seen a 527 per cent increase, those for phlebotomists (health staff who take blood samples) have seen a 277 per cent increase, and those for heating engineers and information security engineers have seen a 66 per increase and a 61 per cent increase respectively.
