Skills shortages blight UK tourism
by Gaby Huddart
Skills shortages created by deficiencies in schools, colleges and businesses are hampering the growth potential of the tourism industry, claims a report from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
The study, Filling the Gaps - Skills for Tourism, published last week, says many international destinations have overtaken the UK's tourism growth because they are better at addressing the skills issue.
"Despite major efforts in recent years by tourism businesses and education and training providers, the industry has the highest proportion of hard-to-fill vacancies of any sector, and skills shortages which are particularly marked in craft skills such as food preparation," director-general of the CBI Howard Davies said at last week's launch of the report.
"Although Britain's tourism industry is growing, the world's tourism industry is growing much more rapidly with new markets opening up, and our competitors reinvesting for the future. We believe work-force skills are the most critical component of the drive to increase our share of this worldwide growth in tourism," he added.
According to the CBI's research, 46% of tourism businesses find it difficult to find appropriate food preparation staff, while 39% have difficulty recruiting good managers.
Nearly half of those questioned said they believed the difficulties were a result of schools and colleges not providing what the industry needed.
However, the report notes that increasing numbers of businesses are beginning to address the skills problem, with nearly two-thirds having put in place training plans and half committing themselves to becoming Investors in People.
The report outlines a number of measures to pull the UK's tourism growth - running at 5.7% over the past decade - up to the 15% levels achieved by East Asia and the Pacific Rim:
A campaign to promote the attractiveness of careers within the industry.
Developing further industry-wide tourism skills programmes.
The building of deeper partnerships between tourism businesses and colleges.
Greater staff accessibility to NVQs.
The report is available from: CBI, Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DU.
