| Over half of all jobs in the sector are part-time, and skill gaps — where an employer judges an employee not to be fully proficient in their job — affect a higher proportion of both employees and workplaces than other industries.
Despite tourism being such a major employer, with nearly 200,000 personnel, and contributor to Scotland’s economy, employers are less likely to have plans for training and development.
The report has been produced by the Futureskills Scotland arm of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Details were given today to around 150 delegates at a Scottish Enterprise-organised conference in Falkirk, at which tourism businesses were urged to take training seriously to help plug the skills gap.
Details of the Futureskills Scotland sectoral report were unveiled by the organisation’s director Stephen Boyle. He said the findings made “interesting reading” and provided a sound evidence base to stimulate discussion about skills issues in the tourism sector.
“From a labour market perspective, the evidence shows the tourism sector is very different to others in Scotland,” he said. “The challenge for employers lies in how they go about addressing the skills and training issues they face.”
The new report shows Scotland has 21,800 tourism-related workplaces, which employ nearly 10% of all employees.
The industry is characterised by a higher proportion of female employees (58% compared to 50% in all sectors generally) and a lower proportion of full time employees (47% compared to 69%).
Tourism in Scotland also has a lower proportion of professional and associate professional occupations; process, plant and machine operatives; and administrative and secretarial occupations.
Futureskills Scotland’s findings show skill shortages in tourism are on a similar scale to those in other industrial sectors in Scotland. However, the problem is more significant in tourism.
A total of 36% of workplaces in Scottish tourism are affected by skill gaps, compared to 22% in other sectors generally. Four out of ten workplaces in the tourism industry hit by skill gaps reported difficulties in meeting required quality standards.
In employee terms, 14% are affected by skill gaps, against 22% elsewhere.
Yet despite the skills issues facing the industry, when asked as part of the survey to specify the main challenges they face over the next 12 months, employers did not place skills challenges at the top of the resulting list.
The clear leader was the challenge of increasing competition to businesses from within Scotland itself. |
