Skills Mismatching in the Labour Market
The SOLAS Labour Market Research unit (SLMRU) has recently published their research on skills mismatch across the labour market. Skills mismatch takes place when someone in employment has skills that are lower than what is required by their role and requires further development, or has skills that are higher than is required for their role. This affects many aspects of the labour market and can lead to inefficient use of resources over time and job dissatisfaction. To support people to take part in the work force, and to obtain employment that suits their skillsets, work is required to reduce skills mismatch across the labour market.
The general findings are that skills mismatch affects over 40% of the workforce: 33.5% are over-skilled, and 6.8% are under-skilled.
People who are under-skilled tend to be younger, half of those who report being under-skilled feel they are lacking skills in computers and software, and others lack skills in teamwork/leadership, project management and communication.
People who are over-skilled tend to be foreign-born and older. It was noted that many graduates of higher education work in roles that do not require their qualifications.
Overall, there is a need to reform our approaches to skills in the workforce, and to provide the right training and education opportunities to people. While people who are under-skilled require ICT training, many are not participating in relevant training, and are partaking in health and safety courses. There remains a mismatch in the training offered to people and what is needed to take part in the workforce across the further and higher education sector. People reported high barriers to participation in education and training, including time constraints and the costs to participate.
The SLMRU report concludes that several areas of policy need to develop to reduce skills mismatch across the labour market. Formal education routes are not enough to reduce skills mismatch – provision of accessible education and training in the FET sector and in the workplace is needed to reduce this skills gap. This should be underpinned by a robust lifelong guidance provision, and targeted measures to support people most affected by skills mismatch in the labour market.
The INOU would support these developments, as well as provisions to improve the recognition of prior learning (RPL) practices, especially for migrants who obtain their qualifications outside of Ireland.