Skills and employment trends for 2017

• Apprenticeships

The Apprenticeship Levy comes into effect in spring 2017 and so there will be a rush of training providers getting in touch to make sure you spend your vouchers with them. It seems likely that this is the beginning of a move to push all government funding towards Apprenticeships to the detriment of everything else. Apprenticeships will soon become the only show in town. Fewer, if any, smaller qualifications will likely receive government funding meaning they are eventually phased out. Without National Occupational Standards, reduced funding and a drive towards delivering more Apprenticeships we might see the end of NVQs and the like.

When providers come and sell you their services, please be as discerning as you are in every other part of your business. Providers will offer different services and have different experience of the sector. 

• Recruitment

Recruitment is going to be challenging.

We now have record low levels of unemployment and Brexit seems to have slowed the appetite for migrant labour to come and work in the UK. The economy is fragile still, but if growth comes, recruiting experienced people will get only harder. The recruitment sector is becoming more innovative and we are using new techniques to stay ahead of the game.

Find a partner who listens to your requirements, understands your business, and who delivers what you want. 

• Wages 

I can’t help but see an increase in wages I’m afraid. From April 2017 the minimum wage goes up by 30p – to £7.50 per hour. This will directly affect many roles in the sector, but maintaining the difference between entry level and first promotion might cost you even more. At a stroke, April might see wage rates going up by 5%. A big increase for an industry working on maybe a 3% profit margin! 

• Devolution and regional powers

2017 will be the year when we really start to see and feel the differences of having devolved powers. Brexit will bring its own challenges and opportunities at the national scale, but devolved powers are already making a difference and this will increase next year. Policies on skills are devolved and one would expect City regions to have autonomy over transport policy. I expect to see regions increasingly attempt to have logistics employers relocate by offering attractive incentives. Something we would all welcome, and which might shake up the authorities of the Golden Triangle a little!

• Driver Certificate of Professional Competence

The operationalisation of the EU directive was never right in the first place and surely 2017 is when the government have to fix it. The difference between principle and practice has never been more obvious than in the context of the DCPC. Training that improves the skills and professionalism of the sector is a good thing. Training that makes a mockery of learning is not.

David Coombes, Founder and Managing Director of Logistics Job Shop