New survey of skills shortages

Some skilled vacancies are hard to fill

The skills of Northern Ireland's workforce are set to be assessed in a major survey of 7,000 public and private sector employers.

A random sample of employers will be asked to respond to issues, including hard-to-fill vacancies, staff retention difficulties, skills gaps and training in the telephone survey, which will run until the end of June.

It is part of an initiative by the Department of Employment and Learning to assess the skills needs of employers.

Speaking on Tuesday, Employment and Learning Minister Carmel Hanna called on all those contacted to take part in the survey.

Health service shortages to be assessed

"Workforce skills are the key to a more prosperous and inclusive Northern Ireland which will benefit everyone in this society," she said.

"In a rapidly changing and increasingly global economy, a highly skilled and flexible workforce is now the main source of competitive advantage."

Public sector

The minister revealed there were now indications of skills shortages in the public sector.

The last survey on skills two years ago did not take the public sector into account.

"It showed that the level of unfilled vacancies had more than doubled compared to 1998 - that of almost two-thirds of vacancies considered to be hard to fill, less than half of the difficulties were related to a skills shortage," said Mrs Hanna.

Skills Task Force chairman Bill McGinnis said the new survey would provide information needed to measure where Northern Ireland stands on developing a world class workforce.

"There are clear signs that skills shortages are now becoming a major concern within the public sector as well as the private sector," said Mr McGinnis.

"It is against this backdrop that this year's survey has been extended to include public sector organisations in health, education and local government."

The survey will be conducted by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.