Post on 17-Dec-2015
Protecting people, property and the environment
Labour Market Intelligence Report
May 2014
Labour Market Intelligence Report
Specific aims included:
1. Analysis of the sector in terms of number and type of employers, size and composition of the workforce and economic contribution;
2. Assessment of the demographics of the workforce, including the size and occupational breakdown;
3. Assessment of the current skills and labour market needs of employers, as well as how well the current workforce meets the needs of employers; and
4. Assessment of how the demand for skills and labour are likely to change over the course of the next decade.
Methodology
1. Desk Research
2. Employer Survey – 32 companies
3. In-depth Stakeholder Interviews – 5
stakeholders
BAFSA Membership
•Approximately 150+ businesses
•Estimates 5000 employees within the fire
sprinkler sector
• No single SIC code for the sector
•Expectations of continuing growth
• Driven by: Legislation, new construction and Awareness/lobbying
campaigns
Employer Survey
Main business activity of organisations
63%
19%
9%
9%Design, installation and maintenance of Mechanical Fire Protection Systems
Manufacturing
Supplier of Mechanical Fire Protection equipment
Other
13%
16%
19%25%
13%
9%
6%
1-4
5-9
10-19
20-49
50-99
100-249
250+
Size of the Workforce in the UK
Age of the Workforce
16-24 25-39 40-54 55+0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
12%
34%
38%
16%
12%
35%
33%
19%
15%
35%33%
17%
Fire Sprinkler Private Security General UK Workforce
Workforce Occupations
16%
8%
9%
8%
28%
12%
11%
7%
Contracts Managers, Design Managers and other Senior Offi-cials
Professional Occupations
Technical Occupations
Administrative and Secretarial Occupations
Skilled Trade Occupations
Sales and Customer Service Oc-cupations
Service Engineers, including weekly testers
Factory based
Performance
•Effects of the recent recession• Varied effects across the industry
• 25% stated it had no effect at all• 16% stated it had a ‘large’ effect
•Biggest challenges facing the industry• Managing cash flows, competition (41% each)• Finding new business, recruiting and retaining staff
(34% each)
Future Performance
•Organisations were hopeful about the future
• 91% actively seeking to grow in the next 12 months
• Same proportion expect workforce to grow
•Positive expectations for the industry• Next 3-5 years, 97% expect growth, no
companies expect it to shrink.
Recruitment
• 4/5 have recruited new staff in the past 12 months
• Most commonly recruited occupations• Admin and secretarial,
trainees 34%• Technical occupations
31%• Only 22% recruited for
skilled trade occupations
Numbers recruited
19%
9%
44%
13%
16%
No
1
2-4
5-9
10-30
Hard-To-Fill Vacancies
Majority (53%) of organisations had HTFs• 41% of these have more than half of
vacancies as HTFs
•Most common causes for HTFs• Few applicants with required skills (65%) • Few applicants with required attitude,
motivation or personality (53%)
Skills Needs
•Two-thirds of employers felt they had employees who were not fully proficient in their roles
• Need for additional training• Of these, 43% felt less than 10% of their workforce
has gaps, highest proportion was 25-49%• Most common skills gaps were ‘technical, practical or
job specific skills’ (57%) much higher than PSI (43%) • Impact of skills gaps – increased workload for other
staff (62%)
Nationally Recognised Qualifications
•Less than half have funded or arranged training for a recognised qualification
• Mean average 24% of workforce trained for qualification
• 5-9% most commonly trained (40%)
Training Providers
•Overall, organisations were very positive• 81% ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’• 19% ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’• ‘Supplier and Mechanical Fire Protection
equipment’ and ‘Other’ most likely to be ‘ neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ (33%)
•Unable to source desired training (13%)
Young People and Apprenticeships
Taken on anyone aged under 24 to their first job on leaving full-time education in the last 12 months
38%
3%
59%
YesUnsureNo
Young People and Apprenticeships
•92% felt that young people were ‘fairly well prepared’
• Only one organisation felt young people were ‘poorly prepared’ – time keeping, attendance and reliability issues.
•Only 22% of all organisations provided apprenticeships
• 58% of those who hired young people
Apprenticeships
• Only 28% offered adult employees apprenticeships
• Main reasons to persuade organisations to offer apprenticeships:
• Financial assistance (35%)• 61% would use apprentices if they had the
right kinds of external support
• Demand for higher level apprenticeships 44%
44%
25%
31% YesNoUnsure
Sub-contractors
•66% used sub-contractors in the past 12 months
• Larger organisations more likely to use them• ‘Design, Installation and Maintenance of Mechanical
Fire Protection Systems’ (80%)
•Sub-contractors most likely used for:• Site Installation (71%)• Design Engineering 48%) • Project Management (24%)
Sub-contractors
•Sub-contractors account for an average of 28% of work completed by organisations
14%
10%
38%
24%
5%10%
1-4%5-9%10-24%25-49%50-74%75%+
•No technological developments
•Knowledge being lost•Industry standards for sub-contractors
•Focus on residential fire sprinkler systems
Research, Development and Other Concerns
•Overall the state of the Fire Sprinkler industry is positive
• Expected growth, increase in workforce
• New recruits, vital role of training recognised
•Aging nature of the workforce
•Skills issues relating to ‘technical, practical or job specific skills’
•Sub-contractors need basic qualfications or certification
Conclusions
Protecting people, property and the environment
Presented by Ruth Oliver
Thank you