Anticipating employers’ skills needs: the case for intervention

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the need to anticipate employers’ future skills requirements, and shows how London Skills Forecasting Unit is addressing this problem. The paper first suggests that employers require advice and labour market intelligence in order to determine their skill requirements effectively, and to ensure their future competitiveness. It then shows that educational and training institutions also need to anticipate employers’ requirements, and so supply side institutions also need to anticipate employers’ skills demand. Finally, some theoretical evidence for skills forecasting is presented together with some practical developments of forecasting techniques undertaken by the Unit.