As students prepare to sit their final examinations, the CBI has revealed that over half of employers (53%) lack confidence in their ability to find enough people with the right skills for their business.

The 'CBI/Edexcel Education & Skills Survey 2008' – a new annual audit of the nation’s skills which covers 35 firms, employing 1.7 million people between them – identifies skills gaps in the workplace, reveals the skills employers value the most and spotlights how employers are managing to source highly skilled people with the right qualifications.

The survey revealed that two-fifths of employers had serious concerns about employees’ basic literacy and numeracy skills. Literacy problems include not being able to write in sentences, spell correctly or use accurate grammar. In numeracy, the key issue is the inability to spot simple errors or rogue numbers.

Malcolm Hyde, CBI South East Regional Director, said: “A worrying number of employers have little confidence that they will be able to plug their skills gaps. In our new stock take of the region’s skills, too many firms also say poor basic skills are hampering customer service and acting as a drag on their business’s performance.”

While most employers (63%) described staff in high skilled roles as ‘good’, fewer did so for those in intermediate level jobs (43%) and even fewer for lower skilled staff (35%).

Poor basic skills have a serious impact on customer service according to two-fifths (40%) of employers, and lower productivity according to a third (34%). Both issues have damaging implications for business performance and around a quarter of employers are investing in remedial literacy and numeracy training.

IT skills are also seen as weak, with over half of employers (56%) concerned about the ability of existing employees to use computers. The skills of people already in the workplace are not keeping pace with the rapid development of technology. Many firms (69%) are investing in training and particularly to raise IT skills of existing staff.

Malcolm Hyde continued: “Being skilled is all the more important in an increasingly global economy, and our message to students is that your hard work to attain the right skills and good qualifications is essential to securing quality, well-paid jobs after school, college or university.

“This survey is also an alarm call to students and universities, who may be surprised by just how much employers also value the ‘softer’ skills that make people more employable. This means being a good team-worker, communicator and problem-solver is vital and getting work experience goes a long way with a future employer.”

The 32% of jobs currently requiring degree-level education is likely to grow, as the UK continues to move towards an economy built on value-added services, high-tech and knowledge-based firms.

Firms employing people with skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics ('STEM skills') are considerably more likely to demand a specific degree subject - 77% of construction companies, 65% of manufacturers and 61% of energy and water firms, compared an average of 30% across all sectors. There is high demand for STEM graduates in all sectors - 92% of firms want people with these skills.

By 2014, it is expected that the UK will need to fill over three-quarters of a million (730,000) extra jobs requiring highly numerate, analytical people with STEM skills, making a net total of 2.4 million of these jobs in six years’ time.

Yet currently, six out of ten (59%) firms employing STEM-skilled staff say they are having difficulty recruiting, and the low take-up of STEM subjects at university is a large part of the problem. There has been a 15% fall in engineering and technology graduates (23,300 to 19,700) over the past decade.

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