Customer Service
Labour Market Report
2012
CfA business skills @ work
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©2012 CFA business skills @ work
Contents
Page No.
Foreword
6
Executive summary
7
1.
Introduction
12
1.1 Scope of research
1.2 Methodology
1.3 Time limits on data
1.4 Sectors and Sector Skills Councils (SSCs)
1.5 Standard Occupational Classification Codes (SOC)
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Profile of the UK customer service workforce
15
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
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2.
3.
4.
Occupational analysis
Status of the workforce
Gender of the workforce
Ethnicity of the workforce
Disability in the workforce
Salary levels of the workforce
Customer service vacancies
Drivers of skill demand
24
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
24
24
25
25
25
Social
Economic
Commercial and global
Policy and regulatory
Political
UK overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships 26
4.1 Training
4.1.1 Current provision
4.1.2 Training in England
4.1.3 Training in Scotland
4.1.4 Training in Wales
4.1.5 Training in Northern Ireland
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4.2 Qualifications
29
4.2.1 Qualification patterns – England, Wales and N.I
29
4.2.2 Qualifications in customer service – UK Wide
30
4.2.3 Qualifications in customer service – England, Wales and N.I.30
4.2.4 Qualifications in customer service – Scotland
35
4.3
Apprenticeships
4.3.1 Apprenticeships – England
4.3.2 Apprenticeships – Scotland
4.3.3 Apprenticeships – Wales
4.3.4 Apprenticeships – N.I.
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Contents
5.
6.
7.
Page No.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
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5.1 Skills
5.1.1
5.1.2
5.1.3
5.1.4
5.1.5
5.1.6
shortages
Skills shortages by occupation
Skills shortages by region
Skills lacking by Sector Skills Councils
Skills shortages and hard to fill vacancies
Recruitment difficulties by region
Reasons for recruitment difficulties
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5.2 Skills
5.2.1
5.2.2
5.2.3
5.2.4
5.2.5
Gaps
Skills gaps by occupation
Skills gaps by Sector Skills Councils
Skills gaps by Industry
Skills gaps by region
Reasons for skills gaps
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5.3 Future skills needs
5.3.1 Upskilling by occupation
5.2.2 Upskilling by Sector Skills Councils
5.2.3 Skills needed for upskilling
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Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
64
6.1 Skills
6.1.1
6.1.2
6.1.3
6.1.4
shortages
Skills shortages by occupation
Vacancies and Hard to fill vacancies (HtfVs)
Skills sought in skill shortage areas
Reasons for recruitment difficulties
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6.2 Skills
6.2.1
6.2.2
6.2.3
6.2.4
Gaps
Skills gaps by occupation
Skills sought in skills gaps areas
Reasons for skills gaps
Effects of skills gaps
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Wales – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
70
7.1 Occupations in Wales
70
7.2 Skills
7.2.1
7.2.2
7.2.3
71
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7.3
shortages
Vacancies and hard to fill vacancies (HtfVs)
Reasons for HtfVs by occupation
Skills sought in skill shortage areas
Skills gaps
7.3.1 Skills gaps by occupation
7.3.2 Common skills gaps by sector
7.3.3 Skills gaps affecting business objectives
7.3.4 Skills sought in skills gaps areas
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Contents
8.
9.
Page No.
Northern Ireland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
77
8.1 Skills
8.1.1
8.1.2
8.1.3
8.1.4
8.1.5
shortages
Skills shortages by occupation
Vacancies and hard to fill vacancies (HtfVs)
Skills sought in skills shortage areas
Reasons for recruitment difficulties
Effects of recruitment difficulties
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8.2 Skills
8.2.1
8.2.2
8.2.3
8.2.4
8.2.5
Gaps
Skills gaps by occupation
Skills sought in skills gap areas
Recruitment difficulties by occupation
Reasons for skills gaps
Effects of skills gaps on employers
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Customer service and the UK economy
83
9.1 Occupational change and employment projections
9.1.1 Sales and customer service occupations UK wide
9.1.2 Expansion and replacement demand
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10. The way forward
87
11. Bibliography
90
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Tables and figures
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Title
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Sales and Customer Service Employment Levels (1990-2020) - UK
Occupational categories - changes to employment levels (1990-2020) - UK
Employment changes - sales and customer service (2010), SOC sub major
groups 2010
Occupational profile of UK workforce by Country
Sectoral share of workers by Industry
Sales and customer service male and female part time and temporary workers
(July-Sept 2011)
Male employment in sales and customer service by occupation
Female employment in sales and customer service by occupation
Predictions of female occupations (1990-2020)
Predictions of male occupations (1990-1920)
Employment by occupation and ethnic group
Types of jobs for disabled people (percentage) Europe
Quarterly remuneration by gender and occupation (2009-2011)
Vacancies in customer service employment (2002-2011)
Training fees and associated costs (2009) - UK
On and off the job training by occupation - UK
Distribution of training by occupation - England
Proportion of employees receiving off-the-job training by occupation - Scotland
Proportion of employees receiving off-the-job training by occupation - Wales
Distribution of training by occupation - Northern Ireland
Qualification patterns by occupation 2010 - SOC Sub Major Group
Customer service active qualifications in England, Wales and N.I. - (Feb 2012)
Registrations and achievements for Customer Service NVQs (Qtr 1 &2 - 2011)
Customer service active qualifications in Scotland - (Feb 2012)
Certification and registration for all qualifications by SSC in Scotland (2010)
Certification and registration for Level 1 to 4 customer service qualifications by
SSC (2010) - Scotland
Starts in CS Apprenticeship at Level 1 and Level 2 (2002/2010) - England
Male and Female Starts in CS Apprenticeships at Level 2 (2002/2010) - England
Male and Female Starts in CS Apprenticeships at Level 3 (2002/2010) - England
Starts, leavers and in training, CS Modern Apprenticeship (2010/2011) Scotland
Achievements, Customer Service Modern Apprenticeship (2010/2011) Scotland
CS Modern Apprenticeship starts 16-19 and 20+, (Apr-Sept 2011) - Scotland
Sector subject breakdown by MA/FA and gender (2010) - Wales
Projected apprenticeship framework success rates (2010/2011) - Wales
Skills lacking by occupation (2009) - England
Skills lacking by occupational group within skill shortage vacancies (2009) England
Skills lacking by Regions (2009) - England
Skills lacking by occupation and sector skills councils (SSC) -England
Profile of skills shortage vacancies by occupation within sector (2009) - England
Overall distribution of vacancies and recruitment difficulties % - England
Vacancies, SSVs and SSV density by occupation - England
Vacancies, hard to fill, skill shortage by regions in England
Reasons for recruitment difficulties in England
Share of skills gaps by occupation - England
Skills gaps by occupation- England
Distribution of skills gaps by occupation and SSC - England
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Nature of skills gaps by SSC Sector - England
Profile of skills gap vacancies by occupation within SIC sectors - England
Nature of skills gaps by industry sector - England
Number of skills gaps across regions in England
Occupations needing up skilling - England
Occupation most needing up skilling by SSC - England
Skills sought for up skilling by occupation - England
Employment and vacancy rate by occupation - Scotland
Distribution of vacancies, HtfVs and skills shortages by occupation - Scotland
Skills sought within skill shortage areas - Scotland
Skills gaps as a proportion of employees by occupation - Scotland
Skills lacking among employees with skills gaps - Scotland
Reasons for employees having skills gaps - Scotland
The 10 fastest growing occupations in Wales 2004-2009
Employment, vacancies and skills shortages by occupation - Wales
Reasons for HtFVs by occupations - Wales
Skills sought in skill shortage areas - Wales
Skills gaps by occupation - Wales
Most common types of skills gaps by sector - Wales
Occupations with skills gap effecting business objectives - Wales
Other technical and practical skills lacking by occupational group - Wales
Vacancies by occupation - 2008 - Northern Ireland
Vacancies in skills shortage areas by occupation, 2008 - Northern Ireland
Distribution of vacancies and density of difficulties by occupation (2008) –
Northern Ireland
Skills lacking in skill shortage vacancies - Northern Ireland
Skills gaps by occupation - Northern Ireland
Skills sought by occupational group - Northern Ireland
Reasons for skills gaps by occupational group - Northern Ireland
Projected Change in Total Employment by Occupation, 2010-2020 - UK
Expansion and Replacement Demand by Occupation, 2010-2020 (SOC Major
Groups 2010) - UK
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Foreword
This report examines Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) relating to Customer Service
employment and the demand from employers for relevant staff skills.
The report draws on:




existing data from Government reports such as the National Employer Skills
Surveys in England (2009/2010), Northern Ireland (2008/2011), Scotland
(2010/2011) and Wales (2005/2011)
UKCES Working Futures/Ambition/Almanac (2010-2020)
information included in Government datasets such as the Labour Force Surveys
e.g. ONS/NOMIS (2002/2012), Data Service (2010/2011)
information from Sector Skills Councils (SSCs)
Further details can be found in the Bibliography at the end of this document;
wherever page numbers are available these are identified for ease of reference.
This report presents a picture of Customer Service across the UK. It looks at:




the current picture of customer service including workforce characteristics
customer service training, qualifications and apprenticeships
the skills challenges and skills related issues facing employers
skill shortages and gaps in customer service
The principle purpose of this report is to provide a robust analysis of how customer
service looks across the UK and within each of the four Nations: England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 6 of 91
Executive summary
An average of just over 2.5 million people were employed in sales and customer service
occupations in the year 2010 and projections to 2020 show little change to this. In
2010, sales and customer service represented 8 per cent of the workforce and, despite
the recession, projections suggest that this percentage will remain around that level in
2020.
Although predictions for sales and customer service to 2020 indicate the lack of growth
of these occupations it is important to note that although customer service occupations
represent the much smaller category it continues to be a rapidly growing occupation.
As a standalone category “customer service occupations are expected to face more
optimistic prospects”1 whilst traditional sales occupations are likely to decrease through
pressures of automated checkout, internet competition and technological changes;
“more specialist sales and customer service occupations are likely to increase”.2
In terms of customer service, changes to employment demonstrate a potential increase
of 115,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2020 with an 18.6 per cent increase in
employment.3
In an increasingly service-led economy, customer demand for better and more
individualised service is set to continue to increase. There is a need to raise customer
service standards and increase the supply of people with customer service skills.
Employers have a major role to play in this and most employers acknowledge their need
to up skill their current workforce and recruit new staff.
The existing workforce needs to be up skilled and new people attracted into customer
service job roles. As competition grows and social networking is increasing customer
expectations are continuously rising. To meet this challenge employers must find new
and innovative ways of providing customer confidence. This can be achieved by
ensuring that high levels of customer service skills are practiced by management and
employees throughout their organisation and by ensuring that policies and practices of
the organisation reflect best practice in customer service.
In the UK, society is becoming much more individualistic and the economy is now
predominantly service-led. These developments are mutually reinforcing: as more and
more people are employed in service jobs, so this enhances their expectations about the
standard of service they should receive as customers in their own right. This contrasts
sharply with the traditional and now outmoded perception of the British as only too
willing to form orderly queues and wait patiently, reluctant to complain and generally
grateful for what they get.
Beyond the UK, similar trends are being experienced by UK organisations which compete
in global markets and by those which, for example as a result of off-shoring, provide
services back into the UK.
Employers are therefore under pressure to keep up with, and exceed, changing customer
expectations. This applies equally to the public, private and third sectors. Those
1
2
3
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 96, Dec 2011
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 81, Dec 2011
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Total Occupational Employment, SOC Sub Major
Codes, 2010-2020 United Kingdom: Page 104, December 2011
Page 7 of 91
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Executive summary
employers who are making progress in improving their service delivery are acting on
three broad but inextricably linked fronts: their strategy and culture; their processes,
including the use of technology; and their people.
In the case of their people, employers are increasingly recognising the importance of
instilling a customer service ethos throughout their organisations, not least in terms of
the relationships between people within the organisation. Many employers are putting
particular emphasis on the skills of staff who are in direct contact with the customer,
recognising that it is they who play a major role in determining the quality of the
customer experience. This has driven the establishment of customer service as an
occupational area in its own right, with a growing number of people in jobs where the
primary performance requirement is to deploy customer service skills.
The importance attached to customer service by employers has been a relatively new
phenomenon. However, customer demands are now driving the new service led
economy through the changes in new technology and the rise of social media and
networking.
These changes are now underpinning the drive for efficiency in response to:











increased emphasis on high level customer service skills
recruiting, upskilling and retaining staff who are competent and motivated to
support their customers
raising product and service quality
delivering high speed and effective responses
changes in production methods and the management of human resources
elasticity of demand for different products and services
changes in tastes and preferences
changes to the patterns of demand
emphasis on high value added
higher quality, high specification goods and services
UK wide and global competition
Throughout this report customer service skills are identified as crucial to the economy
and are regularly cited by employers as the second or first skill needed in their sectors.
In addition where staff need upskilling, employers cite customer service skills as one of
the biggest skills gaps.
It must be recognised here that related data analysis and interpretation in this report is
problematic on a number of fronts which are discussed below:
 there is inconsistency in the use of terminology. For example, the terms customer
service, customer handling, customer care etc, are used randomly and
interchangeably in skills and other published reports which makes aggregation of data
difficult. It should be noted here that customer handling is a term used particularly
for those working in contact centres
 Other terms, for example, communication skills, problem solving skills, working with
others and team working skills may be used as a proxy for customer service skills as
these generic skills form the bedrock of customer service skills and qualifications
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 8 of 91
Executive summary
 Although customer service now has its own Standard Occupational Classification Code
(SOC), at major occupation level customer service continues to be coupled with sales
which is an outmoded reflection of the days when for many employers customer
service was indeed solely an issue of after-sales service. Most published reports on
labour market and other employment trends have drawn only on major group data
which makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about customer service alone.
 At SOC 2000/2010 sub major occupation level, it is possible to separate sale and
customer service but only in highly limited circumstances.
Nevertheless, allowing for the fact that evidence suggests the problems referred to
above have the effect of underestimating the true picture, there is still sufficient and
reliable statistical data available to enable the following conclusions to be drawn:
 an average of over 2 million people were employed in sales and customer service
occupations between 2010 and 2011 accounting for approximately 7 per cent of all
employed adults in occupations in the UK;4
 in 2010 alone 2.5 million people were employed in sales and customer service
occupations across the UK and projections to 2020 indicate that employment will
remain around this level;5
 over a 10 year period (2002- 2011), there were 140,171 vacancies for customer
service staff across England, Scotland and Wales; 6
 changes to customer service employment demonstrate a potential increase of
115,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2020 with an 18.6 per cent increase in
employment;7
 “Customer service and employability skills will be of growing importance to the service
sector including after-service and maintenance roles in manufacturing and the digital
economy”. 8
 in England, sales and customer service has the highest percentage of staff reported as
having skills gaps at 311,000 (10 per cent);9
 across the UK ” the number of employees in sales is decreasing
service employment is continuing to rise”;10
whilst customer
 sales and customer service occupations show the highest overall percentage of skills
gaps across all Sector Skills Councils at 18 per cent;11
 at 18 per cent, sales and customer service occupations have the highest overall
number of skills gaps by industry and across all sectors in the UK;12
 10 out of 24 SSCs have a problem with recruiting sales and customer service staff in
their sector;13
4
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 81, Dec 2011
Ibid
6
ONS Vacancies Notified By Occupation 2002-2011, NOMIS 3 February 2012
7
Table 4.7: UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Total Occupational Employment, SOC
Sub Major Codes, 2010-2020 United Kingdom: Page 104, December 2011
8
Skills for Jobs, Growth: Today and Tomorrow, The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010
9
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 99
10
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 96, Dec 2011
11
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 108
12
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 122
Page 9 of 91
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
5
Executive summary
 in terms of Customer handling skills, seven of the nine occupational areas have
mentioned these skills as most lacking across the UK;14
 in 2011 16 per cent of part time workers across all the occupational sectors were
engaged in sales and customer service. This represented nearly 1 million females in
part time work, three times as many as males;15
 London is the region with the highest percentage (62 per cent) of skills lacking in
customer handling and five other regions have customer handling as the highest skills
lacking;16
 Scotland has the highest employment (8 per cent) for sales and customer service
occupations amongst all the UK Nations;17
 Scotland highlights the softer skills needed to aid recovery “Employers will also look
for softer skills that can be crucial to productivity and success”.18 The softer skills are
identified as customer service skills, teamwork, communication skills, problem solving
ability, analytical skills, enterprise and entrepreneurial skills, career management, and
leadership.
 sales and customer service occupations in Scotland constitute 17 per cent of
vacancies across all occupations with 7,000 vacancies19
 the overall picture of skills lacking for Scottish employers puts customer handling
skills (64 per cent) as the biggest skill shortage area;20
 evidence in Scotland shows that sales and customer service occupations have the
highest number of employees with skills gaps at 9 per cent;21
 in Wales, it is expected that by 2017, more than 400,000 jobs will still exist in the
three occupational groups of sales and customer service, machine and transport
operatives and elementary occupations representing 28 per cent of all jobs in Wales;22
 Wales identifies “growing occupational and skills demands in customer service. “This
is a large occupational area with significant projected growth and is essential to the
quality of service delivery;”23.
 with total employment at 155,427 and the number of skills gaps at 15,431 these
figures show that 10 per cent of the proportion of skills gaps in sales and customer
service for employees is highest in Wales;24
 over a quarter of all notified vacancies in 2009 in Northern Ireland were in sales and
customer service occupations (25.3 per cent) with 14, 331 vacancies;25
13
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 78
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 84
15
ONS (2010) Labour Force Survey: EMP: Part Time and Temporary Work by Occupation, July to Sept 2011
16
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 130
17
UKCES (2011) Skills Almanac 2010, page 83
18
Skills for Scotland: Accelerating the Recovery and Increasing Sustainable Economic Growth, Smarter
Scotland, October 2010
19
Scottish Government (2011), Skills in Scotland, Social Research 2010
20
SESS 2010, page 22
21
Ibid
22
Future Skills Wales (2005)
23
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Key Findings June 2011, page 28
24
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Key Findings June 2011,page 28
25
People:skills:jobs; Labour market profile, Northern Ireland, updated January 2011, pg 12
Page 10 of 91
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
14
Executive summary
 the largest numbers of reported skills shortage vacancies in Northern Ireland were for
sales and customer service with nearly 3,500 vacancies;26
 in Northern Ireland, generic skills are regarded as at least, if not more, important for
employers as technical or job-specific skills for the 21st century workplace;27
 in Northern Ireland, customer handling skills shortages rank third in order of
importance. These shortages apply not just to customer service occupations but also
to other occupations which, though not primarily categorised as customer service,
nevertheless require customer service skills in order to be carried out effectively;28
 over a quarter of all notified vacancies in 2009 in Northern Ireland were in sales and
customer service occupations (25.3 per cent) with 14,331 vacancies; 29
 in England, Customer Service Apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3 had the highest
number of starts across all Sector Frameworks in 2010/11 with a total of 53,110
starts;30
 new starts in the Customer Service Frameworks represented just over 10 per cent of
all apprenticeship starts in England over the years 2003 to 2010;31
 in England, 20,830 learners achieved the Customer Service Apprenticeships at Levels
2 and 3 in 2010/2011 with a 71 per cent achievement rate;32
 customer service starts represented 21 per cent of the overall number of starts in the
Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland during 2010/2011 with 2,254 starts;33
 in 2007 the most popular apprenticeship sectors in Wales were health and social care
(17 per cent) followed by customer service (7 per cent).34
26
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November 2009 Pg 26
Tomorrow’s Skills: Towards a National Skills Strategy:5th Report, Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, 2007
28
Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008, Main Report, November 2009, Pg11
29
People:skills:jobs; Labour market profile, Northern Ireland, updated January 2011, pg 12
30
The Data Service, Apprenticeship Programme Starts by Sector Achievements (2010/11)
31
Ibid
32
Ibid
33
Skills development Scotland, National Training Programmes Performance Report, Modern Apprenticeships,
2010-11
34
ibid
Page 11 of 91
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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1. Introduction
1.1
Scope of research
The aim of this report is to provide an up-to-date analysis of the Customer Service
workforce in the UK. It draws on a compilation of national, regional and sectoral
secondary data sources to ensure that an accurate picture of the workforce is reported
on. The key sources this report makes reference to include (but is not limited to):

Government reports:
 National Employers Skills Survey in England
 Scottish Employer Skills Survey
 Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey
 Future Skills Wales Sector Skills Survey






The Office of National Statistics
The Data Services statistics
NOMIS
Department for Employment and Learning (DELNI)
Skills Development Scotland
UKCES
In addition to these key sources other sector specific and occupational specific data was
used (for the full list of sources please see the bibliography).
1.2.
Methodology
There are a number of methodological issues of concern which are set out below.
1.2.1
Sales and customer service as a joint occupation
A major problem for research into customer service labour market information and
occupational analysis is the continued coupling of ‘sales’ with ‘customer service’ as a
single major occupational group at Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Major
Group Level. Most published labour market surveys base their conclusions at Major
Group level with the result that, by averaging out sales and customer service data, they
fail to draw out, and at worst distort, differing trends relating to these two occupations.
In addition, industry specific data rarely gives opportunities that identify customer
service analysis. Only when occupational data at Major Group Levels is available
alongside the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) Codes, can opportunities for sales
and customer service occupations be identified.
To enable us to report trends in customer service occupations as accurately as possible,
we have wherever possible used data derived from the SOC Sub Major Groups. This
allowed us to separate customer service from sales and to analyse and compare these
results against the SOC Major Group Level in a meaningful and valid way. However,
this has only been possible in the case of data relating to status, occupation, gender and
part/full time status. In all other cases including occupational vacancies, skills shortages
and gaps, the data used has had to be derived from sales and customer service linked
together because Sub Major Group level data is not available.
Due to the issues above research reported here is centred on sales and customer service
occupations at SOC Major Group Level although, wherever possible, research and data
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 12 of 91
1. Introduction
focussing on the individual occupation of customer service is used. Most published
reports on labour market and other employment trends have drawn only on major group
data which makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about customer service alone.
1.2.2
Terminology - customer care, customer handling and generic skills
Problems again arise regarding coherent data for customer service occupations/skills as
there is frequently an inconsistency in the use of terminology. For example, the terms
customer service, customer handling, customer care, etc, are used randomly and
interchangeably in terms of skills and occupations and published reports often use these
terms indiscriminately making aggregation of data difficult. Customer handling skills
have grown out of the introduction of contact centre working practices and are now
recognised as a useful term to identify this particular skill area. However customer care
is now limited in use other than in caring institutions. Many customers no longer accept
this terminology as it is seen as patronising. In the new demand led economy,
customers now demand respect and high levels of professional service, rather than just
smiles and kind words.
Finally, other terms, for example, communication skills, problem solving skills, team
working skills and working with others are generic skills that are embedded in the
customer service occupations, however many authors use these as standalone whereas
they could be better used as a proxy for customer service skills.
1.3
Time limits on data
When identifying suitable research data the most up to date reports and statistics were
identified. However it should be noted that comparisons across the UK Employer Skills
Surveys will be limited as the date of each survey is different. The statistics for Wales
(FSW, 2005) presents specific methodological concerns as it was undertaken before the
recession in 2008. There are also concerns for the NIMS (2008) report where field work
was undertaken during the beginning of the economic downturn and thus the full impact
of the recession may not have been realised. However the use of other up-to-date data
sources will be used to ensure the validity of data sources in reflecting the current
economic climate.
Moreover each reference is explicitly referenced with the year of collection to ensure
transparency with data sources.
1.4
Sectors and Sector Skill Councils
There are many different ways of understanding and describing the range of activities in
which employers engage. In this report, business sectors are described in two ways: by
classification into 14 SIC and on the basis of Sector Skills Council. It is important to
note that the extent to which there is an exact fit between SIC 2003 codes and SSC
footprint varies between SSCs. In some cases defining SSCs by SIC codes excludes
certain elements of a SSCs footprint.
Moreover, when looking at the data on the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), it should be
noted that this data was produced before the changes to some SSCs status. Therefore,
some SSC which no longer exist are presented here to reflect the sector which they
covered at that time. This applies to the following SSCs:
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1. Introduction




1.5
Lifelong learning which was closed down on 31st March 2011
Government skills which ceased to exist on the 1st April 2011
Skillsfast which closed as an SSC in 2011 and was merged with Skillset
People 1st and Go Skills which merged on 4 July 2011
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Codes35
As of 2010 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised and updated the Standard
Occupational Classification 2000 (SOC) codes, with the SOC2010. The revision focused
upon particular areas of classification where changes in the organisation of work or in
the type of work performed had been most apparent. These include jobs related to
management, information and communications technologies, health, social care,
education, culture, media and sport and leisure.
The revised classifications did not affect the customer service occupational area to any
great extent.
As the SOC2010 was only launched recently many of the data publications used in this
LMI still shows the SOC2000 Codes and have not been updated.
Therefore, for this
publication, wherever available, the SOC2010 Codes have been used. Access to the more
recent data from SOC 2010 is still limited.
35
Standard Occupational Classification 2010, Office for National Statistics, 2010,
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2.1
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
Occupational analysis
An average of just over 2.5 million people were employed in sales and customer service
occupations in the year 2010 and projections to 2020 show little change to this. In
2010, sales and customer service represented 8 per cent of the workforce and
projections suggest that this percentage will remain around that level in 2020.
Although predictions for sales and customer service to 2020 indicate the lack of growth
of these occupations it is important to note that, although customer service represent a
smaller occupational area than sales, customer service continues to be a rapidly growing
occupation. “As a standalone category “customer service occupations are expected to
face more optimistic prospects”36 whilst traditional sales occupations are likely to
decrease through pressures of automated checkout, internet competition and
technological changes “more specialist sales and customer service occupations are likely
to increase”37.
Table 1: Sales and Customer Service Employment Levels by occupation 1990-2020
Employment Levels (000s)
1990
2000
2010
2015
Managers, directors and senior officials
2,284
2,540
3,016
3,279
Professional occupations
4,181
4,820
5,843
6,189
Associate professional and technical
3,050
3,561
3,926
4,138
Administrative and secretarial
4,437
4,078
3,698
3,466
Skilled trades occupations
4,736
3,767
3,526
3,389
Caring, leisure and other service
1,446
2,142
2,719
2,801
Sales and customer service
2,309
2,479
2,608
2,555
Process, plant and machine operatives
2,819
2,349
1,950
1,829
Elementary occupations
3,504
3,454
3,173
3,209
Total
28,768
29,192
30,458
30,855
Source: UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 81, Dec 2011
SOC2010 – Major Groups
2020
3,560
6,712
4,476
3,312
3,295
3,032
2,610
1,737
3,274
32,008
As illustrated below, predicted increases in employment across occupational areas are
most evident in the professional (6.5 percent) and caring occupations (4.5 per cent),
whilst skilled trades has the highest projected drop in employment (-6.2 per cent). This
is followed by administration and secretarial (-5.1 percent).
The only other sectors
showing consistent growth across the years are associate professional and technical (3.4
per cent) and managers, directors and senior officials (3.2 per cent).
Sales and customer service employment tends to be the most consistent across the time
span in terms of percentage share of growth, with a final percentage share predicted for
2020 of 0.2 per cent.
36
37
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 96, Dec 2011
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 81, Dec 2011
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2.
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
Figure 1: Occupational Categories – Changes to employment levels 1990-2020
Occupational Categories
- Changes to Employment Levels
1990
- 2020
Managers, directors and senior Officials
Associated & Professionals
Skilled Trades & Occupations
Sales & Customer Service
Elementary Occupations
Professional Occupations
Administration & Secretarial
Caring, Leisure & Other Services
Process, Plant and Machine Operatives
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
Source: UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Total Occupational
Employment, SOC Sub Major Codes, 2010-2020 United Kingdom: Page 104, December 2011
Predictions shown in the table below reinforce these statements. Although sales
occupations have considerably higher levels of employment than customer service,
evidence suggests that sales occupations are likely to decrease by 113,000 over the year
2010–2020 with a -5.7 per cent decrease in employment. In terms of customer service,
changes to employment demonstrate a potential increase of 115,000 new jobs between
2010 and 2020 with an 18.6 per cent increase in employment.
Table 2: Employment Changes Sales and Customer Service 2010-2020 – SOC Sub-Major Groups 2010
SOC 2010 Sub-Major Groups
71 Sales occupations
72 Customer service occupations
Base
Year
2010
Target
year
2020
Change
2010-2020
000s
%
000s
%
000s
%
1991
6.5
1878
5.9
-113
-5.7
617
2
732
2.3
115
18.6
All occupations
30458
100
32008
100
1550
5.1
Source: UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Total Occupational Employment, SOC Sub Major
Codes, 2010-2020 United Kingdom: Page 104, Table 4.7: December 2011
Source: IER estimates, MDM revision 7146., 22UK.xls, Shift-share.
The occupational profile by country shows that Scotland has the highest employment for
sales and customer service occupations (8 per cent) amongst all the UK Nations. In
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2.
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
England, Wales and Northern Ireland sales and customer service occupations are at a
very similar level and the difference between the four Nations is comparatively small38.
Table 3: Occupational profile of UK workforce by Country
(%)
UK
England*
Managers and senior officials
15.4
Professional occupations
14.0
Associate professional and technical
14.6
Administrative and secretarial
11.1
Skilled trades occupations
10.6
Personal service occupations
9.0
Sales and customer service occupations
7.4
Process, plant and machine operatives
6.6
Elementary occupations
11.4
Source: UKCES (2011) Skills Almanac 2010, page 83
Scotland
16.0
14.0
15.0
11.1
10.3
8.6
7.4
6.5
11.2
Wales
12.2
12.1
15.0
12.0
12.0
9.2
8.0
7.0
12.4
Northern Ireland
12.1
14.0
14.3
10.2
12.2
9.5
7.3
6.5
14.0
11.0
12.4
13.1
12.7
15.2
9.0
7.0
8.7
11.0
* this is made up of an amalgamation of regional data including: London, South East, East of England, South West, West
Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, North West and the North East
In terms of industrial classification, sales and customer service occupations have a
significantly higher share of workers in distribution, hotels and restaurants at 29 per cent
across all industries and across all occupations.
38
14
7
20
2
15
5
22
21
8
24
12
10
12
11
5
5
9
20
22
25
10
17
1
8
22
0
6
50
0
7
10
1
9
4
6
17
3
1
14
1
22
9
5
21
8
2
1
29
4
5
1
3
13
19
8
5
32
2
1
3
3
9
page 83
8
22
16
9
6
12
Source: UKCES (2011) Skills Almanac 2010, page 83
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Other services
20
9
Public admin,
education &
health
20
16
Banking,
finance &
insurance
Distribution,
hotels &
restaurants
Transport &
communications
Construction
Managers and senior officials
10
Professional occupations
1
Associate professional and
1
technical
Administrative and secretarial
5
Skilled trades occupations
59
Personal service occupations
1
Sales and customer service
1
occupations
Process, plant and machine
4
operatives
Elementary occupations
17
Source: UKCES (2011) Skills Almanac 2010,
Manufacturing
Mining and
Quarry; Energy &
water
(%)
Agriculture &
fishing
Table 4: Sectoral share of workers by industry
2.
2.2
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
Status of the workforce
In 2011 16 per cent of part time workers in the occupational sectors were engaged in
sales and customer service. This represented nearly 1 million females in part time work.
More than three times as many females working in the sales and customer service
occupations worked part time as compared to males. Although the percentage of part
time occupational workers is very similar for males and females, the number of females
in part time employment is significantly higher.
Between July and September 2011 there were 109,000 workers in temporary
employment in the sales and customer service occupations.
Table 5: Sales and customer service male and female part time and temporary workers (July –
Sept 2011)
Part time workers
Temporary employees
(000s)
Male
All part time workers and temporary
employees
Female
1,952
5,813
(000s)
All
Male & Female All
7,765
1,541
285
910
1,195
109
15%
16%
16%
7%
Source: ONS (2010) Labour Force Survey: EMP: Part Time and Temporary Work by Occupation, July to
Sept 2011
Sales and customer service
2.3
Gender of the workforce
As tables 6 and 7 below shows, only 36 per cent of males were involved in the sales and
customer service occupations whereas 64 per cent were female. Females nearly
outweigh males by two to one in sales and customer service occupations. Males are far
more predominant in management and senior officials, professional and skilled trades
occupations, whereas females are more predominant in the administration and
secretarial and personal services occupations.
This is a reflection of the total employment pattern in the UK, where both genders are
more likely to be employed in traditional gender-type roles.
Table 6: Male employment in sales and customer service by occupation
000s
All
Managers
& senior
officials
Professional
occupations
Associate
professionals
& technical
Admin &
secretarial
Skilled
trades
Personal
services
Sales &
customer
service
Process,
plant &
machinery
operatives
Elementary
occupation
s
Males
OctDec
2010
JanMar
2011
AprJun
2011
JulSep
2011
15,681
2,931
2,295
2,139
733
2,793
440
774
1,669
1,842
15,573
2,956
2,292
2,073
730
2,761
454
762
1,667
1,776
15,639
2,990
2,251
2,054
741
2,805
476
782
1,661
1,827
15,626
2,950
2,143
2,106
741
2,846
489
766
1,660
1,880
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2.
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
Table 7: Female employment in sales and customer service by occupation
000s
Managers
& senior
officials
All
Professional
occupations
Associate
professionals
& technical
Admin &
secretarial
Skilled
trades
Personal
services
Sales &
customer
service
Process,
plant &
machinery
operatives
Elementary
occupation
s
Females
OctDec
2010
JanMar
2011
AprJun
2011
JulSep
2011
13,514
1,595
1,788
2,171
2,438
238
2,127
1,385
222
1,505
13,570
1,625
1,835
2,221
2,391
248
2,102
1,404
215
1,473
13,520
1,598
1,755
2,280
2,399
227
2,126
1,367
214
1,518
13,546
1,634
1,699
2,279
2,422
241
2,142
1,380
217
1,503
Source: ONS Labour Market Statistics, December 2011; EMP08: All in Employment by occupation (updated November
2011)
In Jan-Mar 2011 the occupation classification used in the Labour Force Survey changed from SOC 2000 to SOC 2010. Estimates for
Jan-Mar 2011 onwards have been mapped to SOC 2000. As a result there may be some inconsistencies with date before this
period.”
Through 1990 to 2000 over 12 per cent of female employees worked in the sales and
customer service occupations.
In terms of the future of sales and customer service
occupations the number of actual and expected females in employment does not appear
to have changed significantly through the years 1990 and 2010.
However previous evidence shown has indicated that the number employees in sales are
decreasing whilst customer service employment is continuing to rise.39 It is anticipated
that the future employment of both male and female sales and customer service
employees will be higher in terms of customer service roles.
Table 8: Predictions of Female occupations 1990 - 2020
SOC 10 - Major Groups
1990
2000
Employment Levels (000s)
Managers, directors and senior officials
2010
2015
2020
Females
533
731
1,001
1,157
1,321
1,723
2,224
2,817
3,064
3,423
962
1,352
1,632
1,791
2,026
3,638
3,302
2,934
2,713
2,549
704
526
444
399
367
Caring, leisure and other service
1,190
1,766
2,214
2,263
2,431
Sales and customer service
1,623
1,735
1,693
1,657
1,704
634
399
213
175
139
Elementary occupations
2,081
1,707
1,382
1,287
1,243
Total
13,087
13,743
14,331
14,507
15,203
Professional occupations
Associate professional and technical
Administrative and secretarial
Skilled trades occupations
Process, plant and machine operatives
Source: UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 82, Dec 2011
Predictions for males in sales and customer service occupations are different to those of
females. Although male employment is significantly lower than females the number of
males taking part has increased by 25 per cent in the year 2010. Male employment
39
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 96, Dec 2011
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2.
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
appears to fluctuate more across the years and from 2010 to 2020 rises to an average of
around 5 per cent of the workforce.
Table 9: Predictions of Male occupations 1990 - 2020
SOC 20 - Major Groups
Employment Levels (000s)
Managers, directors and senior officials
Professional occupations
Associate professional and technical
Administrative and secretarial
Skilled trades occupations
Caring, leisure and other service
Sales and customer service
Process, plant and machine operatives
Elementary occupations
Total
1990
2000
1,752
2,458
2,089
799
4,032
257
686
2,185
1,424
15,681
1,809
2,596
2,210
777
3,241
376
744
1,950
1,747
15,449
2010
Males
2,015
3,026
2,294
764
3,081
505
915
1,737
1,791
16,127
2015
2020
2,122
3,125
2,347
753
2,990
538
898
1,654
1,922
16,348
2,239
3,289
2,450
763
2,928
600
906
1,599
2,031
16,806
Source: UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, Page 83, Dec 2011
2.4
Ethnicity of the Workforce
The analysis from the Annual Population Survey shows that all occupations have
disproportionally high numbers of white staff. In terms of sales and customer service
staff (60.8 per cent) of these are white. Working in this occupation, Indian people have
the highest number of staff amongst the ethnic groups but this is still only 1.9 per cent
followed by similarly low levels for Pakistani/Bangladeshi people at 1.6 per cent. The
pattern across all the occupations is very similar.
100
60.8
0.5
1.9
1.6
1.5
2.1
31.6
100
60.9
0.2
1.8
2.3
1.3
1.6
31.9
Elementary
Process, Plant
and Machine
Operatives
All
100
100
100
100
100
100
White
63.5
60.3
63.4
63.0 64.2
61.4
Mixed
0.35
0.5
0.7
0.5
0.2
0.6
Indian
1.6
2.2
1.6
1.4
0.6
0.9
Pakistani/Bangladeshi
0.9
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.8
0.7
Black
0.9
1.6
1.4
1.4
0.7
2.7
Other Ethnic Group
1.6
2.2
1.4
1.4
1.4
2.1
Did not state ethnicity
31.1
32.4
30.7
31.6 32.1
31.6
Source: NOMIS, Annual Population Survey- July 2010 – June 2011
Sales & Customer
Service
Caring, Leisure
and Other
Service
Skilled Trades
Occupations
Administrative &
Secretarial
Associate Prof
and Technical
Professional
(%)
Managers,
Directors and
Senior Officials
Table 10: Employment by occupation and ethnic group
100
60.1
0.6
1.6
1.4
2.5
2.4
31.4
Footnote: APS Ethnicity Estimates
Following production of this table by the CFA, the Annual Population Survey for July 2010
to 2011 has been withdrawn by Nomis and no other ethnicity data is currently available
in this format. The statement below was produced by Nomis and the updated table is
not yet available, however the CFA has decided to keep this in as a broad view of
ethnicity in the sales and customer service occupational area and this will be replaced
once the new estimates are available.
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2.
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
“Ethnicity estimates in the Annual Population Survey (APS) have been withdrawn for
the April 2010 to March 2011 survey period and are not included in the estimates for
the July 2010 to June 2011 period published on 18 Jan 2012.
In 2010 changes were made to the ethnicity questions asked in the APS. These
changes have caused problems with producing a consistent time series of estimates for
a number of the variables published on Nomis.
Further analyses are currently taking place and ONS hopes to be able to make ethnicity
estimates available for the affected periods within the next few weeks. ONS apologises
for any inconvenience.
Periods affected:
 April 2010 to March 2011
 July 2010 to June 2011”40
2.5
Disability in the workforce
There is a relative lack of information about the types of jobs and sectors that disabled
people are employed in. Many disabled people employed in the labour market are not
recognised or measured in reported figures. However the table below does give an
indication of the percentage of disabled people in employment across EU countries and
allows comparisons between countries to be made. Although job types are described
differently to the standard UK SOC coded occupations, broad alignment can be made
between the occupations of sales and customer service with service and shop and
market sales workers.
Based on this evidence 20.6 per cent of disabled people work in the service workers and
shop and market sales jobs. In the UK the highest percentage of jobs for the disabled
are in elementary (23.7 per cent) and plant and machine operative positions (21 per
cent). The lowest employment levels are in management (18.7 per cent) and
professional occupations (17.6 per cent). In terms of EU Countries, Finland has the
highest percentage employment levels for disabled people across all jobs and
occupations. In addition, the highest level of jobs for the disabled in service and sales
employment can be found in Finland and Sweden; closely followed by the UK and
France.
Table 11: Type of jobs for disabled people (percentage) - Europe
Service
workers
and shop
and market
sales
Plant and
machine
operators
and
assembler
Legislators,
senior
officials and
managers
Professionals
Technical
and associate
Professionals
Cyprus
8.9
10.3
8.3
7.6
9.7
3.5
9.7
10.6
6.1
8.8
12.1
6.7
7.1
11.2
8.4
10.5
16.8
8.8
11.3
16.7
10.3
Czech Republic
10.6
12.4
12.7
13.8
14.4
15.9
25.6
Denmark
11.0
12.0
11.4
13.2
13.7
17.7
19.9
Estonia
16.9
16.9
17.6
14.2
19.8
28.4
Finland
24.4
24.7
26.3
29.7
27.2
26.6
28.9
France
18.1
16.9
19.9
20.2
20.5
25.0
27.8
Germany
6.5
5.7
7.0
7.1
6.2
8.9
11.4
Greece
6.6
4.9
4.4
3.8
5.4
6.5
7.1
( %)
Austria
Belgium
40
Clerk
Elementary
Nomis annual population survey, APS Ethnicity Estimates, 18.1.2012
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2.
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
Hungary
1.5
1.2
1.9
1.9
2.0
2.7
5.0
Ireland
7.1
5.6
6.5
6.1
6.9
6.5
9.9
Italy
3.9
2.7
3.4
4.5
4.1
4.8
6.2
6.2
5.7
6.8
8.4
5.4
12.8
11.0
19.0
17.4
18.4
22.2
17.7
25.3
21.0
Norway
6.6
8.2
7.4
10.2
12.0
11.9
16.3
Portugal
14.8
9.3
10.6
10.9
12.4
14.9
20.3
Romania
2.3
1.5
1.8
3.6
1.9
1.5
1.2
1.7
2.0
3.0
2.5
2.6
5.1
8.7
9.6
13.0
12.1
16.8
24.7
3.2
Lithuania
Luxembourg
5.0
Malta
Netherlands
Slovakia
10.7
Slovenia
3.8
2.5
2.8
3.3
3.7
4.4
6.6
Sweden
12.1
16.1
16.8
20.0
23.3
20.2
25.0
United Kingdom
18.7
17.6
19.1
21.0
20.6
22.7
23.7
Spain
Source: Academic Network of European Disability experts (2009)
2.6
Salary levels of the workforce
In 2009, the average UK weekly remuneration for full time employees in sales and
customer service was £297. This rose to £326 in 2011 giving a 10 per cent rise in salary
of £30 per week. In 2009/2010 employees working in sales and customer service were
the lowest paid of all occupations. However, salaries in sales and customer service
employment rose by 10.5 per cent between 2010 and 2011 indicating a slight change to
the perceived status of sales and customer service occupations. Throughout this same
time period, males consistently received higher salaries than females although males
only received a 7 per cent salary increase in 2010-2011. Females had lower salaries in
2009-2010 but enjoyed an 11 per cent increase by 2011. However, recent data shows
that female salary levels are still 14 per cent lower than they are for males.
Table 12: Quarterly remuneration by gender and by occupation 2009 - 2011
JulJuly- July JulJuly- July - July- July- July Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep
UK £
2009 2010
2011 2009 2010 2011 2009 2010 2011
Persons
Male
Female
All full time employees
524
536
546
571
579
593
451
466
472
Managers, directors and senior
740
776
786
801
834
849
611
652
659
officials
Professional occupations
739
747
775
794
779
826
655
695
695
Associate professional and technical
557
573
592
603
627
638
503
506
533
Administrative and secretarial
381
386
391
407
431
438
370
368
372
Skilled trades occupations
422
432
434
430
439
446
294
306
286
Caring, leisure and other service
305
301
299
354
339
347
288
290
283
Sales and customer service
297
295
326
327
315
351
270
276
301
Process, plant and machine
407
393
415
421
403
427
299
300
300
operatives
Elementary occupations
308
308
322
327
322
339
257
260
272
Total
4682 4745
4886 5035 5067
5254 3998 4119
4172
Source: ONS LMS; EARN06 part 1: Average gross weekly earnings of full-time employees by occupation Sept
2011
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 22 of 91
2.
2.7
Profile of the UK customer service workforce
Customer Service Vacancies
Over a 10 year period (2002- 2011), there were 140,171 vacancies for customer service
staff across England, Scotland and Wales. The majority of these vacancies were found in
England (115,577) and were reported over the 10 year period. From the total number of
vacancies, 82 per cent were in England, 12 per cent were in Scotland and 5 per cent
were in Wales.
Table 13: Vacancies in customer service employment 2002 - 2011
December
England
Scotland
Wales
Total all
Countries
2002
2003
2004
6,961
1,024
445
10,057
1,151
356
9,534
2,832
481
8,430
11,564
12,847
2006
2007
9,566
1,260
1,087
19,508
3,576
690
20,159
2,914
1,051
11,525
1,357
1,397
9,514
661
1,157
10,278
725
681
8,475
1,424
325
Total
per
country
115,577
16,924
7,670
11,913
23,774
24,124
14,279
11,332
11,684
10,224
140,171
2005
2008
2009
2010
2011
Source: ONS Vacancies Notified By Occupation 2002-2011, NOMIS 3 February 2012
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 23 of 91
3.
Drivers of skills demands
The update period of this LMI analysis covers a time of considerable economic
uncertainty for the UK. Growth has slowed and an official recession covered some six
quarters of national economic decline. Negative growth spanned quarter 2 of 2008 to
quarter 3 of 2009 and since then growth has been very slow with another single quarter
of decline in quarter 4 of 2010. Although there are many key drivers in the economy,
the recent phenomenon of social media is now significantly influencing the behaviour and
expectations of customers.
3.1
Social Media
More and more evidence is showing that there is a shift in power from organisations to
customers. Organisations have to now refine the way they work with customers.
Customer satisfaction is no longer enough.
A range of political, social, economic and technological changes are driving these
developments. In particular social media has changed how customers and organisations
view customer service. More than ever, customers use social media to spread the word
about organisations they like and, more importantly, don’t like.
The shift in power from organisations to customers, particularly in terms of customer
expectations and loyalty, is now defining the way that organisations engage with
customers. Customer demands are now leading the way and organisations have to adapt
and respond by using a range of social media and networking techniques as an effective
business tool to engage with and respond to customers. Customers now increasingly
expect an instant response and high levels of service when dealing with an organisation.
These changes to customers demands can affect all types of organisations across the
private, public and not for profit sectors and can be recognised in all four UK countries
and other parts of the world.
Employers in all sectors continue to report significant changes in customer behaviour
resulting from enhanced expectations about the standard of service customers expect to
receive. These changes include:




a much greater willingness to complain
a demand for faster response times
a stronger propensity to make cross-sector and/or organisational comparisons
about service standards and
a desire for services which are tailored to their individual needs
Social media is more than a phenomenon it can now define customer expectations and
loyalty. Organisations will have to adapt to using social networking as an effective
business tool to engage with customers, giving instant responses to minimise negative
feedback.
In addition those same tools can escalate positive feedback offered by
customers through careful dialogue focused on customer needs and expectations. Other
key drivers impact on the delivery of high levels of customer service skills and illustrate
a range of issues that affect customers, employers and the UK as a whole. These drivers
include:
3.2

Economic drivers
an increasingly service-led UK economy (over 70% of UK GDP and 80% of UK
employment is service based)
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 24 of 91
3.
Drivers of skills demands









3.3
increasing concentration of distribution and service industries
global and technological business developments which mean that organisations
are less restricted by national boundaries
national economic pressures to produce growth in service sectors to compensate
for decline in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy
economic pressures which, when balanced against the quality of service that can
be maintained, cause movement into and out of offshoring for contact centre
operations
the economic impact of software communications developments in which social
networking is playing an increasing role in interaction between customers,
advertisers and suppliers
changes to the patterns of demand for goods and services
significant changes in the patterns of employment e.g. increasingly high
unemployment and redundancy
major changes to the way work is organised
customers demand consistently high service standards across the UK and the rest
of the world
Commercial and global drivers







3.4
continued rise in self-service and online methods for dealing with transactions
and queries and more emphasis on cross-selling and up-selling
increased use of price comparisons online but continuing customer demand for
personalised contact through multi-channel routes
outsourcing and telemarketing reports strong growth as businesses seek to cut
costs and stay clear of non-core activities
public services making efforts to cut costs without significant decline in service
levels
communications are influenced more than any other sector by the rapid march of
technology as superior customer service is used to gain competitive advantage
and regulation demands access to reliable information for customers
freer trade and movement of people globally, resulting particularly in greater
choice
increased globalisation allowing customers to transfer their business more easily
from one country to another
Policy and regulatory drivers



3.5
industry regulation places demands and limits on many different types of
business operations
within different sectors such as finance, insurance, public services and debt
collection, industries are now encumbered with specific regulations that must be
strictly followed
the ongoing effects of compliance and other public policy matters leading to the
direct effect on demand for different types of labour
Political drivers




public policy (including regulatory and legislative frameworks)
the opening up of former monopolies like nationalised industries, to competition
de-regulation and the loosening of anti-competitive controls
the appointment of regulators and the focus put by them on service standards
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 25 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
4.1
Training
4.1.1 Current provision
In the UK, the vast majority of training is funded by employers. For sales and customer
service occupations the majority of training is self funded (66.8 per cent) whilst
Government funding for these occupations are only at 2.6 per cent41.
Table 14: Training fees and associated costs 2009 – UK wide
Employers
Government
%
%
68.5
4.4
All
Self
%
3.37
Male
74.9
2.7
25.7
Female
62.6
5.9
41.0
Managers
86.9
3.2
17.2
Professionals
64.6
5.7
34.5
Associate professionals
70.1
2.2
31.9
Administrative and secretarial
64.5
11.2
39.9
Skilled trades
65.9
4.4
38.5
Personal services
47.2
3.4
56.2
Sales and customer service
32.0
2.6
66.8
Plant and machinery operatives
48.6
0.3
49.5
Elementary occupations
82.1
0.0
17.9
Source: UKCES (2009) The 2009 Report: Ambitions 2020, page 63
Nationally, the most common reason for not providing training is the belief that all staff are
already proficient in their jobs. Non-trainers in Wales are more likely to believe their staff
are already proficient (76 per cent) compared to 73 per cent of non-trainers in Northern
Ireland, 67 per cent in England and 44 per cent in Scotland. Issues of training supply or
expense are not issues of concern for employers when deciding whether there staff need
training.
Outside of England, in relation to providing off-the-job training, employers in devolved
administrations indicate additional barriers to providing training. Employers in Scotland for
example, felt that off-the-job training was not necessary for their business. Welsh
employers, felt that they had a lack of time for training (31 per cent) and employers in
Northern Ireland suggested that they preferred alternative training methods for off-the-job
training. The decision to train or not is embedded within the culture of business and the
extent to which employers formally plan for the future growth and development of their
businesses.42
The table below shows that sales and customer service staff receive more on the job
training (61 per cent) than off the job training (27 per cent). Sales and customer service
employees are more likely to receive on-the-job training compared to most other
occupational groups except personal services at 67 per cent.
41
UKCES (2009) The 2009 Report: Ambitions 2020, page 63
UKCES (2009) The 2009 Report: Ambitions 2020, page 74
42
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 26 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
Table 15: On and off the job training by occupation - UK Wide
% receiving off
% receiving on the job
the job training
training
Managers
36
42
Professionals
52
59
Associate professionals
44
57
Administrative
32
47
Skilled trades
36
45
Personal services
52
67
Sales and customer services
27
61
Machine operatives
24
43
Elementary
26
51
Weighted base
1,454,507
777,049
Un-weighted base
79,018
24,084
Source: UKCES (2009) The 2009 Report: Ambitions 2020, page 78
4.1.2 Training in England
In England two thirds (67 per cent) of employers provided some training or development to
at least some of their staff over the previous 12 months. This training and development
represented 63 per cent of the whole workforce.43
In England 55 per cent of sales and customer service staff received training over a twelve
month period involving over 1.6 million learners.
Table 16: Distribution of training by occupation - England
Employment
Trainees in the
Trainees as a
(000s)
previous 12
proportion of current
months (000s)
employment
Managers
4,219
2,052
49%
Professionals
2,575
1,659
64%
Associate professionals
1,721
1,061
62%
Admin
3,207
1,536
48%
Skilled Trades
1,612
860
53%
Personal services
1,797
1,268
71%
Sales and customer services
3,041
1,678
55%
Machine operatives
1,571
745
47%
Elementary
3,233
1,520
47%
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 169
4.1.3 Training in Scotland
In Scotland, 65 per cent of employers provided some form of training to employees in the
previous year. 10 per cent provided off-the-job only, 17 per cent on-the-job only and 38
per cent a mix of both types44.
As shown below managers (53 per cent) in Scotland received the most off-the-job closely
followed by administration and professionals at 50 per cent. This compares with elementary
occupations where only 25 per cent of employees received training. In terms of sales and
customer service occupations only 31 per cent of staff are given off the job training in
Scotland.
43
44
Learning and Skills Council, National Employers Skills Survey 2007: Report 2008 pg 17: UKCES Ambition 2020, Pg 64
Future Skills Scotland, Skills in Scotland 2008 – UKCES, Ambition 2020, pg 64
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
Figure 2: Proportion of employees receiving off-the-job training by occupation – Scotland
Source: SESS 2010, page 39
4.1.4 Training in Wales
In Wales 58 per cent of employers provided off-the-job training to their staff45.
Figure 3: Proportion of employees receiving off-the-job training by occupation – Wales
Source: Future Skills Wales (2005), Page 79
Compared to the results in England, Wales has significantly lower off-the- job training
across all occupational groups except management (65 per cent). Off-the–job training in
management is 30 per cent higher than the nearest other occupational group
(administration) with just 35 per cent. 22 per cent of sales and customer service employees
receive off-the-job training which is the third highest occupational group level after
45
Future Skills Wales, Sector Skills Survey 2005, pg 12, Ambition 2020, pg 64
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 28 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
managers and administration. However as there was no recent data since 2005 it is likely
that this situation has changed in the more recent years.
4.1.5 Training in Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, 78 per cent of employers provided some training to their staff in the
previous year with 60 per cent having provided on-the-job training, and 34 per cent off-thejob training46. In 2008 (the latest data available), 19,250 sales and customer service staff
were involved in being trained. This only accounted for 21 per cent of the sales and
customer service workforce and was much lower than the percentage of workforce training
across the other occupational areas.
Table 17: Distribution of training by occupation – Northern Ireland
Managers
Professionals
Associate professionals
Admin
Skilled Trades
Personal services
Sales and customer services
Machine operatives
Elementary
Numbers
trained
45,535
28,151
30,996
31,680
18,418
28,591
19,250
16,547
27,472
Number
employed
102,295
50,758
60,367
104,948
49,917
67,862
90,396
58,753
137,502
% of workforce
trained
44
55
51
30
37
42
21
28
20
Source: NISMS,08, page 81
4.2
Qualifications
4.2.1 Qualification patterns – England, Wales and Northern Ireland
As shown in Figure 4 below in the UK teaching and educational professionals have the
highest take up of QCF qualifications at Levels 7 and 8 across all occupations. These
represent nearly 50 per cent of qualifications in this occupational area whereas sales (2 per
cent) and customer service (3 per cent) are amongst the lowest47.
In terms of QCF Levels 4-6, the highest take up is in the health and social care, associate
professionals (60 per cent) and health professionals (55 per cent) occupations. In sales
there is just over 10 per cent of take up at Levels 4-6 whereas in customer service the take
up is double this at 20 per cent. At QCF Level 3 the highest take up is in the skilled metal,
electrical and electronic trades (33 per cent) and sales and customer service are each 25
and 26 per cent respectively.
Sales and customer service take up at other Levels show:






Sales Level QCF 2 =26 per cent
Sales Level QCF 1 =20 per cent
Sales Level 1 QCF 0 =16 per cent
Customer Service QCF 2 = 28 per cent
Customer Service QCF 1 =15 per cent
Customer Service QCF 0 =9 per cent
46
DELNI, The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey2005 Main Report, 2007, p.70 and 82 - UKCES, Ambition
2020, pg 64.
47
UKCES, Working Futures, Main Report, 2010-2020 pg 123
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 29 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
In terms of Level 2 qualifications, sales has a 6 per cent higher take up than at Level 1
whereas customer service has over double the take up over Level 1 (13 per cent).
Figure 4: Qualification patterns by Occupation, 2010 – SOC Sub Major Groups
Source: UKCES, Working Futures, Main Report, 2010-2020 pg 123
4.2.2 Qualifications in customer service – UK wide
Customer service qualifications are amongst the most popular across the UK. These are
generic qualifications which can be used across all sectors and job roles and range from
foundation level through to QCF Levels 1 to 4 and SVQ Levels 1 to 4 (SCQF Levels 4 to 7) in
Scotland. The majority of customer service qualifications have been developed for Level 2
and Level 3 Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships in England, Wales and Northern
Ireland. Modern Apprenticeships in customer service at Level 2 and Level 3 are available in
Scotland.
The main components of apprenticeships throughout the UK are competence based (NVQs)
and/or knowledge based (VRQs) qualifications. Scotland has a different system in place
with competence based qualifications only (SVQs). These qualifications are central to the
development of apprenticeships throughout the UK.
4.2.3 Qualifications in customer service – England, Wales and N.I.
Currently there are 24 Awarding Organisations that offer a total of 104 customer service
qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The number of qualifications for each Level is as follows:

4 at Entry Level
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 30 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships




19 at Level 1
41 at Level 2
34 at Level 3
6 at Level 4
Of these there are a total of 67 qualifications that are in the Customer Service
Apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3, these are as follows:




20
17
16
14
are
are
are
are
NVQs @ Level 2
NVQs @ Level 3
Technical Certificates @ Level 2
Technical Certificates @ Level 3
There are also another 37
apprenticeships, these are:







customer
service
qualifications
that
are
not
in
the
4 Pre Entry qualifications @ Entry Level
6 Awards @ Level 1
3 Certificates @ Level 1
10 NVQ Certificates @ Level 1
5 Awards @ Level 2
3 Awards @ Level 3
6 NVQ Diplomas @ Level 4
The qualifications below show the breadth of customer service qualifications that are
available to both employers and learners. They have been developed as fully generic
qualifications and consequently can be used across most sectors and job roles. There is a
high take up of customer service qualifications by employers across the private, public and
not for profit sectors. They are used to train the unemployed, recruit new learners, upskill
the existing workforce and give opportunities for higher level skills development.
Table 18: Customer service active qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Feb 2012
Qual.
Q Number
Qualification Title
Level
600/1918/9
600/1919/0
600/2777/0
500/9676/X
500/9807/X
600/1683/8
600/1685/1
600/1686/3
600/1684/X
600/4347/7
501/1840/7
501/1838/9
501/1839/0
500/3682/8
501/1837/7
500/9348/4
500/3681/6
AABPS Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
AABPS Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
Active IQ Level 2 Certificate In Customer Service (QCF)
Active IQ Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
Active IQ Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
Ascentis Entry Level Award for Introduction to Customer Service (QCF) (Entry 3)
Ascentis Entry Level Certificate for Introduction to Customer Service(QCF) (Entry 3)
Ascentis Level 1 Award For Introduction to Customer Service (QCF)
Ascentis Level 1 Certificate For Introduction to Customer Service (QCF)
CILT(UK) Level 2 Award in Customer Service and Marketing (QCF)
City & Guilds Entry Level Award for Introduction to Customer Service (Entry 3) (QCF)
City & Guilds Entry Level Certificate for Introduction to Customer Service (Entry 3)
(QCF)
City & Guilds Level 1 Award for Introduction to Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 1 Award in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 1 Certificate for Introduction to Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 2 Award in Customer Service (QCF)
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Level 2
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Entry Level
Entry Level
Level 1
Level 1
Level 2
Entry Level
Entry Level
Level 1
Level 1
Level 1
Level 1
Level 2
Page 31 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
501/0971/6
501/0973/X
500/6329/7
500/9341/1
500/3680/4
501/0972/8
500/6206/2
500/8818/X
500/8817/8
600/3434/8
600/3422/1
501/2351/8
501/2055/4
501/2354/3
501/2340/3
600/1499/4
501/0441/X
501/0442/1
501/0444/5
501/0443/3
500/9994/2
501/0080/4
500/9505/5
500/9506/7
500/9381/2
500/9235/2
500/9378/2
500/9236/4
500/8823/3
600/2207/3
600/2562/1
600/2208/5
600/2807/5
600/3433/6
600/3437/3
600/3423/3
600/3425/7
600/3424/5
600/3429/4
501/1253/3
500/9328/9
501/1254/5
500/9349/6
600/2832/4
600/1382/5
600/4324/6
600/4115/8
600/3533/X
600/3536/5
600/3676/X
600/3535/3
500/8403/3
501/1741/5
501/1797/X
City & Guilds Level 2 Award in Customer Service Delivery (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 2 Award in Customer Service Improvement (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 3 Award in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 3 Award in Leading Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
City & Guilds Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
CYQ Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
CYQ Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EAL Level 1 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EAL Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EAL Level 3 Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
EAL Level 4 Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
Edexcel BTEC Level 1 Award in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL BTEC Level 2 Award in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL BTEC Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL BTEC Level 3 Award in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL BTEC Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
EDEXCEL Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
EDI Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDI Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDI Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDI Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
EDI Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
FAQ Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
FAQ Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
FAQ Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
FAQ Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
FDQ Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
FDQ Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
iCQ Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
iCQ Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
iCQ Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
iCQ Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
IMIAL Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service for the Automotive Industry (QCF)
IMIAL Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
IMIAL Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service for the Automotive Industry (QCF)
IMIAL Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
IQ Level 2 Certificate In Customer Service (QCF)
ISMM Level 1 Award In Developing customer service skills (QCF)
ITEC Level 2 Certificate In Customer Service (QCF)
ITEC Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
KPA Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
KPA Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
KPA Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
KPA Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
LAO Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
LAO Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
LAO Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Level 2
Level 2
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 3
Level 3
Level 4
Level 1
Level 2
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Page 32 of 91
4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
501/1742/7
501/0287/4
600/1772/7
501/0263/1
600/2922/5
501/0231/X
501/0232/1
500/9843/3
600/0840/4
500/8625/X
600/0752/7
500/8626/1
500/9203/0
600/2659/5
600/2311/9
600/2349/1
600/2312/0
600/2352/1
600/0044/2
500/9008/2
500/8171/8
500/9011/2
500/8166/4
500/8858/0
501/2203/4
501/2062/1
501/2070/0
500/9777/5
501/1083/4
501/0018/X
600/1394/1
500/9440/3
501/1095/0
LAO Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
NCFE Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
NCFE Level 2 Certificate In Customer Service Knowledge (QCF)
NCFE Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
NCFE Level 3 Certificate In Principles of Customer Service (QCF)
NCFE Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
NCFE Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
OCR Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
OCR Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Customer Service (QCF)
OCR Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
OCR Level 3 Certificate in Principles of Customer Service (QCF)
OCR Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
OCR Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
ProQual Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
ProQual Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
ProQual Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
ProQual Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
ProQual Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
Skillsfirst Level 1 Award in Principles of Customer Service (QCF)
Skillsfirst Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
Skillsfirst Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
Skillsfirst Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
Skillsfirst Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
Skillsfirst Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
SQA Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
SQA Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
SQA Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
VTCT Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
VTCT Level 2 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
VTCT Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
VTCT Level 3 Certificate in Customer Service (QCF)
VTCT Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
VTCT Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (QCF)
Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 4
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 4
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 1
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 4
Source: UKCES Action Plan Database Download, Current Customer Service Qualifications on QCF, Feb
2012
In terms of NVQs, twelve major awarding organisations currently offer customer service
NVQs at Levels 1 to 4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Not every awarding
organisation uses the NVQs at all Levels, some might only use Levels 2 and 3 for the
Apprenticeships but could choose any levels from 1 to 4.
The take up and certification data for these qualifications is supplied to the CFA on a
quarterly basis by awarding organisations. The data shown in the table below has been
gathered in Quarters 1 and 2, 2011.
Please note: gathering data from twelve awarding organisations often brings delays in
receiving the information, therefore data from Quarters 3 and 4 are still being gathered and
collated.
The list of current awarding organisations involved in this data gathering is shown below:




Active IQ
City and Guilds
EAL
Edexcel
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







EDI
IMI
Lifetime Awarding
NCFE
OCR
Skillsfirst
VTCT
SQA (involved in S/NVQs in both England and Scotland )
As the table below shows there were 49,948 registrations for NVQs in Customer Service
over a six month period (Jan – March and April-June 2011).
Overall there were 25,177 learners registered during Quarter 1 and 14,882 learners
certificated. In Quarter 2 there were 24,771 registrations and 14,119 achievements.
In Quarter 2, registrations increased at Level 2 by 400 (19,526) and decreased at Level 3
by 321 starts (4,865). These results only show slight fluctuations in take up.
Table 19: Registrations and achievements for Customer Service NVQs (Qtr 1 & 2 - 2011)
Qtr 1
Qtr 1
Qtr 2
Qtr 2
Title
Starts
Achievements
Starts
Achievements
Level 1 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service
847
286
372
211
Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service
19126
11851
19526
10942
Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service
5186
2735
4865
2953
Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service
18
10
8
13
Totals
25,177
14,882
24,771
14,119
CFA Awarding Body Quarterly Stats, Quarters 1 and 2, (2011)
In Quarter 1, across the levels, there is a significant difference in take up between the Level
2 and Level 3 qualifications.
A massive 75 per cent of the NVQ Customer Service
qualifications were at Level 2, whereas only 20 per cent were at Level 3. The reason that
the Level 1 and Level 4 starts are so low is because the majority of NVQs are used in the
Customer Service Apprenticeship Frameworks at Levels 2 and 3 and there are no Level 1 or
Level 4 Apprenticeship Frameworks.
More recently another nine awarding organisations have developed Customer Service NVQ
qualifications, giving an overall total of 21 awarding organisations taking part. As these are
new to customer service data has not yet been made available.
A list of new Awarding Organisations in the process of using these qualifications includes:









CYQ
EMTA Awards Ltd (EAL)
FDQ
GAQ
Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance (HABC)
ICQ
Industry Qualifications
IQ
ITEC World
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Please note: this data was collected based on current awarding organisations submitting
their quarterly statistics to CFA. Other new AOs might have figures for these periods but
have yet to submit them, therefore the data in table 19 are likely to be underestimated.
4.2.4 Qualifications in customer service – Scotland
Qualifications that are available in terms of customer service in Scotland are mainly Scottish
Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) which are competence based. These can be used as
individual qualifications and are also central to the development of Modern Apprenticeships.
According to SQA Accreditation48, currently there are 4 Awarding Bodies that are able to
offer customer service qualifications at SVQ Levels 1 to 4, these are:




City & Guilds
Edexcel
EDI
SQA
Table 20: Customer service active qualifications in Scotland - Feb 2012
SVQ
Code
Type
Awarding Body
Title of qualification
Level
1
GA38 21
SVQ
SQA
Customer Service at SCQF Level 4
2
GA39 22
SVQ
SQA
Customer Service at SCQF Level 5
3
GA52 23
SVQ
SQA
Customer Service at SCQF Level 6
4
GA3R 24
SVQ
SQA
Customer Service at SCQF Level 8
1
GA4F 21
SVQ
City and Guilds
Customer Service at SCQF Level 4
2
GA4G 22
SVQ
City and Guilds
Customer Service at SCQF Level 5
3
GA4H 23
SVQ
City and Guilds
Customer Service at SCQF Level 6
4
GA4J 24
SVQ
City and Guilds
Customer Service at SCQF Level 8
2
GC2V 22
SVQ
Edexcel
Customer Service at SCQF Level 5
3
GC2W 23
SVQ
Edexcel
Customer Service at SCQF Level 6
2
GA43 22
SVQ
EDI
Customer Service at SCQF Level 5
3
GA46 23
SVQ
EDI
Customer Service at SCQF Level 6
Other EDI
R028 04
Other
EDI Certificate in Customer Service at Level 5
Other
RO29 04
Other
EDI
EDI Certificate in Customer Service at Level 6
Source: SQA, Accreditation Search Download, February 2012
In Scotland, the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) listed below have accumulated their individual
skill areas into an overview of registrations and certifications throughout the network. Of
these the largest number of registrations are in the skills for care and development sector
with 13,643 registrations and certification at 9,849. The customer service qualifications are
a specific skill area in the CFA Business Skills @ Work Sector which has the largest number
of registrations within the SSC network second only to skills for care and development.
Table 21: Certification and Registration for all Qualifications in 2010 by SSC - Scotland
Sector Skills Council
Asset Skills
CFA Business Skills for Work
Cogent
Construction Skills
Creative and Cultural Skills
48
Registrations
133
7554
578
4819
1
Certifications
179
3290
517
5698
1
SQA Accreditation Qualification Search, Customer Service, Feb 2011
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Sector Skills Council
Registrations Certifications
ECITB
146
152
e-Skills UK
421
218
EU Skills
235
195
FSSC
100
91
Go Skills
2130
956
Government Skills
0
13
HABIA
3431
2533
IMI
628
643
Improve
1109
600
Lantra
999
745
LLUK
219
183
People 1st
3102
2059
Ports Skills and Safety Limited
10
0
Proskills
221
183
SEMTA
4178
3725
Skillsfast UK
144
87
Skills for Care and Development
13643
9849
Skills for Health
434
293
Skills for Justice
297
305
Skills for Logistics
260
160
Skills for Security
58
71
Skills Active
1134
803
Skillsmart Retail
6100
1377
Summit skills
555
901
TDA
10
3
Total
52649
35830
Source: SQA Accreditation, Certifications and Registrations for all Qualifications in 2010
arranged by Sector Skills Councils, Uploaded 23.3.2011
Customer service skills represent 45 per cent of the CFA Business Skills @ Work Sector.
However not all generic skill areas are listed in this piece of SSC research. The areas that
are represented on behalf of the CFA are customer service, business and administration,
management and team leading, Other generic skill areas which the CFA is responsible for
but were not included in the SSC analysis are:





Consultancy & Business Support
Contact Centres
Enterprise
Governance
Human Resources






Industrial relations
Languages & Intercultural working
Marketing
Recruitment
Sales
Small Business
With the addition of results from these areas it is suggested that the total registration and
certification count for CFA Business Skills @Work would have been significantly higher.
In terms of the SSC results regarding customer service qualifications in Scotland, the
highest level of registrations by SSC is 2,825 for the Level 2. Very little take up is found for
the Level 1 and Level 4 qualifications. In addition there is some concern over the number of
certifications at only 29 per cent of registrations. The evidence suggests that the Level 3
qualifications have a good registration and certification ratio whereas the Level 2
registrations are significantly higher than the certification rates.
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UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
Table 22: Cert and Reg for Levels 1-4 CS Qualifications by SSC 2010 - Scotland
Registrations
Certifications
Level 1
1
1
Level 2
2825
595
Level 3
649
416
Level 4
3
2
Totals
3478
1014
Source: SQA Accreditation, Certifications and Registrations for all Qualifications in
2010 arranged by Sector Skills Councils, Uploaded 23.3.2011
In the quarter July – Sept 2011 there were 281 registrations for customer service
qualifications and 232 certificates awarded in Scotland. However, data from a SQA
Accreditation search only identified 6 qualifications out of the 14 potential qualifications
listed. 49
4.3
Apprenticeships
4.3.1
Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships – England
Customer Service Apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3 had the highest number of starts
across all Sector Frameworks in 2010/11 with a total of 53,110 starts. This was followed by
business administration (27,020) and hospitality and catering (21,470).The total starts for
the Level 2 and 3 apprenticeships in customer service over the eight year period 2003 to
2010 was 147,760. These new starts in the Customer Service Frameworks represent just
over 10 per cent of all apprenticeship starts in England during this time period. 20,830
learners achieved the Customer Service Apprenticeships at Level 2 and 3 in 2010/2011
giving a 71 per cent achievement rate50. In terms of the Level of the Apprenticeships the
figure below shows that the Apprenticeship (Level 2) starts (23,000) are 70 per cent higher
than the Advanced Apprenticeship (Level 3) starts (6,410).
49
50
SQA Accreditation, Quarterly Statistics Report, Raw Data Q2, July-Sept, 2011
The Data Service, Apprenticeship Programme Starts by Sector Achievements (2010/11)
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Figure 5: Starts in CS Apprenticeship at Level 1 and Level 2 (2002-2010) - England
As figure 6 below shows there is also a wide gulf between male and female starts in the
Customer Service Apprenticeships at both Levels. Level 2 female apprentices have a
significantly higher number of starts than their male counterparts at 76 per cent.
Figure 6: Male and Female Starts in CS Apprenticeships at Level 2 (2002-2010) - England
The pattern for the Advanced Apprenticeship is very similar with Female starts showing a
start rate at 70 per cent of the take up and leaving 30 per centre of males.
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UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
Figure 7: Male and Female Starts in Advance Apprenticeship at Level 3 (2002-2010) - England
4.3.2
Modern Apprenticeships - Scotland
Currently there are two Modern Apprenticeship frameworks in customer service approved
for use in Scotland. These frameworks are at levels 2 and 3.
Customer service starts represent 21 per cent of the overall number of starts in the Modern
Apprenticeships in 2010/2011 with 2,254 starts. Of these starts 52 per cent were female.
In terms of ‘achievers’, female achievement is 8 per cent higher than males and
achievements as a percentage of all leavers is 77 per cent for both males and females. This
achievement rate is 5 per cent above the average for all female leavers and 6 per cent
above the average for males.
Over the years there has been a consistently high number of learners on Customer Service
Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks with customer service being one of the top 10
frameworks in Scotland. In 2010/2011, the apprenticeships with the highest number of
starts were:








Hospitality (2,511)
Customer service (2,254)
Construction (2,046)
Retail (1,799)
Business & Administration (1,731)
Hairdressing (1,340)
Health & Social care (1,314)
Management (1,250)
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
Table 23: Starts, leavers and in training, CS Modern Apprenticeship 2010 – 2011 - Scotland
In Training as at
Starts
Leavers
31.03.2011
Female
Customer Service
1,169
Male
Total
1,085
Female
2,254
Male
1,567
1,359
Total
2,926
Female
Male
618
Total
553
1,171
9,656
11,905
21,561
9,185
14,614
23,799
9,634
22,619
32,253
Totals for all MAs
% Customer Service
take-up of all MAs
12%
9%
21 %
17%
9%
12%
6%
2%
4%
by Female and Male
Source: Skills development Scotland, National Training Programmes Performance Report, Modern Apprenticeships,
2010-11
Table 24: Achievements, Customer Service Modern Apprenticeship 2010 – 2011 - Scotland
Achievements
Customer Service
Female
1,214
Achievements as % of all Leavers
Male
1,042
Total
2,256
Female
77%
Male
77%
Total
77%
6,577
10,391
16,968
72%
71%
71%
Totals for all MAs
% Customer Service
take-up of all MAs
18%
10%
13%
Average 71%
by Female and Male
Source: Skills development Scotland, National Training Programmes Performance Report, Modern Apprenticeships,
2010-11
As table 25 below shows there were more apprentices above the age of 20+ on the
customer service modern apprenticeship than there were between the ages 16-19. Again
there were more female starts in both age categories than males. In the age category 1619 there were more leavers and more achievement for females than males. In the 20+
categories the numbers of male and female leavers were identical.
Overall it appears that although females between the ages 16-19 and 20+ have a higher
number of achievements, males have high achievement levels when compared with
achievements of all 16-19 year old leavers across the Modern Apprenticeships at 71 per
cent. This is 5 percent lower than the national average of 76 per cent. Achievements for
20+ also have a National Average Level of 76 per cent for males which is significantly lower
in this age group with an achievement rate of only 51 per cent.
Table 25: CS Modern Apprenticeship Starts - 16-19 and 20+ , 1 April–30 Sept 2011 - Scotland
16 - 19 year olds
Female
Starts
82
Male
50
20+
Total
132
Female
212
Male
160
164
100
264
129
129
Leavers
231
174
405
390
362
In Training
101
71
172
101
66
Achievements
Achievements as % of all
62%
71%
65%
48%
51%
leavers
Source: Skills Development Scotland: National Training Statistics, Modern Apprenticeship
Programme, 16-19 and 20+ years old, from 1 April 2011 to 30 Sept 2011, 2011-2012
Total
372
258
152
167
65%
4.3.3 –Foundation Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship – Wales
The Customer Service Apprenticeships in Wales have been built on the success of their
predecessors by including employer led, up to date, flexible qualifications which meet their
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UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
demand for higher levels of customer service skills, including softer-skills such as
communication, team working, interpersonal skills and the ability to improve own learning
and performance.
Whatever job role or sector a customer service apprentice might work in, they will be
learning and understanding the key concepts of customer service and how to apply
customer service knowledge and skills in the workplace.
For a Foundation Apprenticeship (Level 2) the skills could involve communicating with
customers, building relationships with customers, resolving problems, promoting products
and/or services, using appropriate communication channels, keeping records, gathering
customer feedback and working in a team.
For an Apprenticeship (Level 3) the skills could involve improving customer satisfaction,
team leading, improving customer loyalty, gathering and analysing customer feedback,
processing complaints and maintaining reliable customer service.
Three Levels of apprenticeship programmes are available in Wales: the Level 2 Foundation
Apprenticeships, the Level 3 Apprenticeship and a Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship. There is
no Level 4 Higher Customer Service Apprenticeship.
By 2009/1051 of the 57,605 individuals who participated in a work-based learning
programme, 63 per cent were on a Foundation (Level 2) or Modern Apprenticeship (Level
3), down from 70 per cent in 2008/09 and 74 per cent in 2007/08. The most popular sector
frameworks at this time were health and social care (17.5 per cent), earlier years’ care and
education (8 per cent) and management (8 per cent).
In 2007/09 health and social care (17 per cent) was the most popular Apprenticeship in
Wales, with customer service (9 per cent) as the second most popular Apprenticeship
programme (tied with Management at 9 per cent). The most popular sectors in Wales differ
to those in Scotland. In Wales, it is the newer service sector Apprenticeships which are
most popular, in contrast a strong Apprenticeship tradition in the male dominated craft and
technical occupations is maintained in Scotland52.
The sectoral data for Wales discussed in the table below links customer service to the retail
sector for apprenticeships whereas in England and Scotland the occupational codes link
customer service to sales. In addition, the Wales triennial_review53, June 2011, also
provides a range of data on apprenticeships54 but in this case lists customer service
separately from retail as follows, “in 2007 the most popular apprenticeship sectors were
‘health and social care’ (17% of participation in ‘learning programmes’); followed by
customer service and management (both 9% of learning programmes) and business
administration (7%)”55.
51
Further Education, Work-based Learning and Community Learning in Wales Statistics 2009/10, 2011, page 3,
Welsh Government
52
Equality groups and apprenticeships, Alison Fuller and Gayna Davey, 2010 Equality and Human Rights
Commission Triennial review: education (lifelong learning), page 27
53
Equality groups and apprenticeships, Alison Fuller and Gayna Davey, 2010 Equality and Human Rights
Commission Triennial review: education (lifelong learning), page 28
54
First Release, Further Education, Work-based Learning and Community Learning in Wales Statistics 2007/08
ibid
Page 41 of 91
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4.
UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
The difference within, and between, countries regarding apprenticeship data is a cause for
concern and makes it difficult to make realistic comparisons between the four UK Nations
and different data sets within individual countries.
Table 26 below provides a breakdown by 13 broad sector subject areas being used in
Wales. In terms of take up in the Level 2 Foundation Apprenticeship, retailing and customer
service is 18 per cent of the take up whereas in the Level 3 Apprenticeship the take up of
this area is 7 per cent. Of the total apprenticeship take up retailing and customer service
represent 13 per cent of the take up across all sectors. These findings follow the same
pattern as those in other UK countries where the Level 2 Apprenticeships are far more
prevalent than at Level 3.
However, results regarding male/female take up are the same as in the other three UK
Countries with 66 per cent of females using the Foundation Apprenticeship and 71 per cent
of females using the Apprenticeship. The findings in this study replicate the male/female
stereotypes of sectors and industries across the UK. As illustrated the dominance of males
in traditionally practical male job roles and females in more service job roles continues.
However, this trend is different for managers and professionals in Wales where the
percentage of females to males is twice as high at Level 2 but only marginally higher at
Level 3.
Table 26: Sector subject breakdown by MA/FA and gender - Wales
MA
%
%
FMA
(Level 3)
(male)
(female)
(Level 2)
Retailing and customer services
1,230
29
71
4,910
Leisure, sport and travel
375
61
39
510
Hospitality
670
Hair and beauty
46
54
2,085
%
(male)
34
64
%
(female)
66
36
37
63
500
7
93
1,495
9
91
4,835
17
83
5,700
13
87
30
17
83
-
-
-
155
81
19
305
89
11
Construction
2,205
99
1
3,215
98
2
Engineering
2,410
91
9
1,480
91
9
Manufacturing
95
93
7
2,145
74
26
Transportation
35
-
-
180
97
3
Management and professional
2,290
39
61
850
45
55
Business administration
3,185
22
78
3,885
37
69
270
98
2
680
85
15
18,275
46
54
27,410
45
55
Health care and public services
Media and design
Agriculture
Sector unknown/not confirmed
Total
Source: Fuller & Davey (2010), page 29
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UK Overview – Training, qualifications and apprenticeships
More recent data56 regarding framework success rates is shown below. This data is again
different to previous data as customer service is now linked to retail at sub level 7(a). The
table is split by sector subject area and programme type and shows the projections for
apprenticeship success rates in 2010/2011.
Projected apprenticeship framework success rates for 2010/11 were 79 per cent and 81 per
cent for Foundation Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship programmes respectively. Overall,
the projected apprenticeship framework success rate was 80 per cent. The best performing
sector subject areas for all apprenticeships were education and training (89 per cent),
retailing and customer service (86 per cent), business, administration and law (83 per
cent), and engineering and manufacturing technologies (83 per cent)57.
Table 27: Projected apprenticeship framework success rates, 2010/11 - Wales
Foundation
Apprenticeships
Sector Subject Area
Health, Public Services and
Care
Agriculture, Horticulture and
Animal Care
Engineering and
Manufacturing Technologies
No. Of
Leavers
Attaining
Full
Framework
%
All
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships
No. Of
Leavers
Attaining
Full
Framework
No. Of
Leavers
Attaining
Full
Framework
%
%
1,720
78%
1,400
79%
3,120
79%
45
73%
15
*
60
73%
870
82%
795
85%
1,670
83%
770
69%
585
68%
510
80%
190
74%
700
78%
2,255
82%
795
82%
3,050
82%
1,300
85%
455
87%
1,755
86%
365
72%
150
69%
510
71%
590
80%
195
81%
780
81%
135
0
55
75%
*
93%
140
0
290
86%
n/a
88%
275
0
345
80%
*
89%
1,015
81%
1,095
85%
2,110
83%
All subject areas
7,380 79%
Source: Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR)
5,295
81%
12,675
80%
Construction, Planning and
the Built Environment
Information and
Communication Technology
Retail and Commercial
Enterprise
(a): Retailing and Customer
Service
(b): Hair and Beauty
(c): Hospitality and
Catering
Leisure, Travel and Tourism
Arts, Media and Publishing
Education and Training
Business, Administration
and Law
69%
56
Welsh Government, First Release, Projected Apprenticeship Framework Success Rates, 2010/2011,
December 201, pages not numbered
57
Welsh Government, First Release, Projected Apprenticeship Framework Success Rates, 2010/2011,
December 2011
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4.3.4 Foundation Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship – Northern Ireland
There are currently two Customer Service Apprenticeships available in Northern Ireland,58 a
Level 2 Apprenticeship Framework and a Level 3 Apprenticeship Framework.
These frameworks specify the standards and the criteria for the delivery of the Level 2
and/or the Level 3 Apprenticeships training and provision to achieve qualified status within
the customer service Industry. Successful completion of the provision
will lead to a Level 2 and/or Level 3 qualification and recognition as a qualified person
within the customer service sector.
At Level 2 a choice of twelve Level 2 NVQ qualifications are available for the Competence
Based Element of the Apprenticeship and eight qualifications are available for selection
amongst the Related Knowledge Element. At Level 3 a choice of twelve Level 3 NVQ
qualifications are available for the Competence Based Element of the Apprenticeship and
seven qualifications are available for selection amongst the Related Knowledge Element.

At Level 2 - the addition of Essential Skills of Application of Number and
Communication are Mandatory at Level 1.

At Level 3 - the addition of Essential Skills of Application of Number and
Communication are Mandatory at Level 2.
Nb: Currently there are no statistics available regarding the Level 2 and 3 Apprenticeships
in Northern Ireland.
58
Department for Employment and Learning, nidirect.gov.uk, Apprenticeships NI Framework, 2011
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Terminology used in this section is described as follows:
Recruitment difficulties refer to vacancies that employers describe as either hard-to-fill or skillshortage related.
Hard-to-fill vacancies (HtfVs) are vacancies classified by employers as hard to fill.
Skill shortage vacancies (SSVs) are a subset of hard-to-fill vacancies where the reason given for
the difficulty filling the position is a low number of applicants with the required skills, work
experience or qualification.
Skill shortages occur when organisations cannot recruit sufficient people who are appropriately
qualified, skilled or experienced to fill the vacancies they have. Alternatively, hard to fill vacancies
(HTfVs) occur because of other issues such as poor pay, conditions or remoteness.
Skill gaps exist when members of the existing workforce in an organisation are seen to have lower
skills than are necessary to meet current business needs.
Unweighted base refers to the number of respondents on which a survey is based
Weighted base ensures that the survey results are representative of the entire population of
employers.
Analysis of data regarding skills shortages and gaps in customer service has been
problematic as most of the available data does not differentiate between sales and
customer service occupations. Therefore to reach conclusions about customer service
skill deficiencies we mainly have drawn on the available composite sales and customer
service data at the SOC Major Group Level. However, wherever SOC Sub Major Groups
are available the independent occupations of sales and customer service can be
separated and will be used.
5.1
Skills shortages
5.1.1 Skills shortages by occupation - England
The highest percentage of customer handling skills lacking across all occupations is in
sales and customer service (70 per cent) followed by elementary occupations (57 per
cent). In terms of sales and customer service occupations other important skills lacking
are technical and practical skills (59 per cent), oral communication (48 per cent), team
working (45 per cent) and problem solving (42 per cent). All of these skills reflect the
essence of working in a sales and customer service environment. Most are amongst the
softer skills that need to be used when dealing with customers either face-to-face or via
other communication methods. In terms of technical and practical skills these are
necessary to ensure that the practices and processes are in place in order give
customers a good experience leading to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
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England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
2009
Managers
Professionals
Associate
Professionals
Administrative
Skilled trades
Personal
services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
operatives
Elementary
Table 28: Skills lacking by occupation (2009) – England
Technical and practical
64
48
78
77
62
75
63
59
71
64
Customer-handling
51
43
41
48
51
33
52
70
29
57
Team working
50
57
44
49
45
37
55
45
58
57
Oral communication
46
45
42
42
45
33
48
48
45
52
Problem solving
46
48
49
49
49
42
46
42
54
42
37
39
41
44
45
30
47
29
41
30
36
77
53
44
29
23
28
20
28
21
General IT user
28
33
33
32
48
20
27
25
28
16
Literacy
24
14
17
23
25
20
39
18
36
29
Office Admin
22
28
23
25
52
12
17
16
17
12
Numeracy
21
11
16
19
21
19
27
17
35
28
IT Professional
17
23
22
28
28
10
16
13
12
9
Foreign languages
13
10
15
11
11
6
13
12
21
16
(%)
Written
communication
Management
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 119
In terms of skills shortages it must be recognised that the customer handling skills cited
by employers and SSCs, represent recent terminology which has grown out of contact
centre and customer service skill needs.
This section details the particular skills lacking where skill shortage vacancies existed in
the sales and customer service occupation. Elementary occupations have the highest
level of skills shortages in customer-handling across all occupations (60 per cent)
followed by sales and customer service at 56 per cent.
In terms of customer handling skills seven of the nine occupations have mentioned these
skills as most lacking.
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Managers
Professionals
Associate
Professionals
Administrative
Skilled Trades
Personal
Services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
Operatives
Elementary
Table 29: Skills lacking by occupational group within skill shortage vacancies (2009) - England
5,118
300
1,035
1,098
328
614
585
356
331
440
63,089
3,735
8,303
12,693
4,573
8,908
9,123
5,480
2,908
6,932
62
60
76
55
51
73
60
51
73
59
41
40
37
36
49
28
45
56
24
60
Problem solving
38
39
45
28
39
42
38
41
21
45
Team working
Oral
communication
Written
communication
37
25
31
31
33
41
42
41
26
54
35
27
17
26
46
38
46
49
27
44
34
29
19
29
47
39
40
45
22
36
Management
32
63
29
33
30
37
24
34
11
32
Literacy
30
30
14
26
39
35
35
41
20
28
Numeracy
26
23
11
21
40
34
27
31
18
29
Office Admin
Foreign
languages
General IT
18
19
11
24
40
11
17
22
7
12
18
11
28
13
17
13
19
19
8
30
16
15
18
13
9
13
16
15
31
28
13
10
15
12
22
20
9
6
11
19
Un-weighted
base (SSVs)
Weighted
base (SSVs)
Technical and
practical skills
Customerhandling
IT Professional
Overall
(%)
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 84
The top three skills lacking for each of the occupational areas are as follows:
Managers
Professionals
 Technical and practical skills (76 per cent)
 Problem solving (45 per cent)
 Customer Handling skills (37 per cent)
Associate professionals
 Technical and practical skills (55 per cent)
 Customer Handling skills (36 per cent)
 Management (33 per cent)
Administrative
Personal services
 Technical and practical skills (60 per cent)
 Oral communication (46 per cent)
 Customer Handling skills (45 per cent)
Sales and customer service
 Customer Handling skills (56 per cent)
 Technical and practical skills (51 per cent)
 Oral communication (49 per cent)
Machine operatives
 Technical and practical skills (73 per cent)
 Oral communication (27 per cent)
 Team working (26 per cent)
Elementary
 Technical and practical skills (51 per cent)
 Customer Handling skills (49 per cent)
 Written Communication (47 per cent)
 Customer Handling skills (60 per cent)
 Technical and practical skills (59 per cent)
 Team working (54 per cent)
 Management skills (63 per cent)
 Technical and practical skills (60 per cent)
 Customer Handling skills (40 per cent)
Skilled trades
 Technical and practical skills (73 per cent)
 Problem solving (42 per cent)
 Team working (41 per cent)
Technical and practical skills are targeted in each of the nine occupations with six areas
seeing this as their most important skills lacking. Skilled trades and machine operatives
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
are the only skill areas that do not mention customer handling, however it could be
argued that problem solving, team working and oral communications are all a major part
of customer handling and sales and customer service.
5.1.2 Skills shortages by regions - England
The regional pattern of skills lacking is presented in Table 30 below. London is the region
with the highest percentage (62 per cent) of skills lacking in customer handling and five
other regions have this as the highest percentage of skills lacking apart from technical
and practical skills (64 per cent).
These





regions are:
North East (55 per cent)
Yorkshire and the Humber (54 per cent)
South West (51 per cent)
West Midlands (47 per cent)
South East (45 per cent)
Overall customer handling skills have the second highest percentage rate of all skills
lacking with 51 per cent across all regions.
London
North East
North West
South East
South West
West Midlands
Yorkshire and
the Humber
Weighted base (00s)
East Midlands
Un-weighted base
Eastern
(%)
Overall
Table 30: Skills lacking by Regions - England
158,7
59
1,369
13,3
76
134
10,72
2
93
26,20
0
225
7,68
5
51
16,66
4
156
29,09
5
259
22,97
5
175
21,58
5
168
10,45
7
109
Technical and practical
skills
Customer-handling
64
63
61
60
56
64
68
66
65
60
51
50
46
62
55
51
45
49
47
54
Team working
50
53
55
59
49
56
42
43
44
51
Oral communication
46
51
48
27
51
53
37
37
36
49
Problem solving
46
51
50
53
52
52
38
38
43
46
Written communication
37
42
36
47
40
41
29
31
29
40
Management
34
33
33
49
37
31
32
29
32
30
General IT user
28
26
28
32
34
30
25
26
36
25
Literacy
24
26
23
31
30
29
17
18
21
26
Office Admin
22
23
22
27
24
26
20
17
20
20
Numeracy
21
23
22
22
28
26
15
20
20
22
IT Professional
17
13
13
21
26
16
15
17
25
10
7
8
8
9
Foreign languages
13
14
13
28
8
11
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 130
5.1.3 Skills lacking by sector skills councils (SSCs) - England
Evidence below shows the difficulties experienced by each Sector Skills Council (SSCs)
when recruiting sales and customer service staff in their sector in England. As listed
below Skillsmart Retail and Skillset have the highest number of vacancies in the Sales
and Customer Service occupations and Construction Skills and Go Skills have the lowest
number of skills vacancies.
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Highest number of vacancies
Skillsmart Retail (48 per cent)
Skillset (46 per cent)
Cogent (33 per cent)
Skills for Logistics (22 per cent)




Lowest number of vacancies
Construction Skills (1 per cent)
Go Skills (now aligned to People First) (2 per cent)
Lifelong Learning UK (2 per cent)
Skills for Care and Development (2 per cent)




Those SSCs who do not have skill shortage vacancies for sales and customer service
include: Energy and Utility Skills; Lantra; Skills for Health and Summit Skills.
Government Skills is no longer a part of the SSC Network and Go Skills has now joined
People First.
Un-weighted
Weighted
Managers
Professionals
Associate
Professionals
Administrative
Skilled Trades
Personal
Services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
Operatives
Elementary
Table 31: Skills lacking by occupation and sector skills councils (SSCs) - England
133
76
38
2,345
1,710
460
6
3
11
13
1
12
20
10
21
7
14
6
14
2
2
14
11
0
9
18
33
5
8
14
11
31
1
67
674
14
21
16
4
31
0
1
10
2
Creative and Cultural Skills
151
1,194
4
23
51
9
1
-
8
-
2
Energy and Utility Skills
239
3,117
7
14
31
4
15
0
-
19
10
e-skills UK
186
2,232
8
25
35
8
12
-
10
1
1
Financial Skills Partnership
153
2,201
6
1
46
26
-
1
16
-
-
Go Skills
116
1,723
2
1
4
17
2
-
2
69
-
Government Skills
101
1,839
2
2
1
13
73
-
2
2
5
( %)
Overall
Asset Skills
Cogent
Construction Skills
SEMTA
36
366
3
32
11
4
30
0
6
11
2
223
3,961
3
-
7
6
56
0
16
9
3
Improve Ltd
57
563
7
1
6
6
29
0
13
16
9
Lantra
51
335
1
13
6
3
34
8
-
14
21
Lifelong Learning UK
311
2,273
1
45
35
8
2
6
2
1
-
People 1st
178
902
7
-
2
3
27
3
5
1
53
Proskills UK
65
349
0
1
24
2
54
0
9
4
6
Skills Active
76
452
4
-
31
9
10
25
4
-
15
Skill fast-UK
295
2,369
19
-
13
11
17
0
13
16
9
IMI
Skillset
64
511
2
6
37
4
-
2
46
-
3
Skillsmart Retail
Skills for Care &
Development
Skills for Health
451
6,869
14
2
12
10
9
-
48
-
5
351
3,854
5
6
17
5
2
56
2
-
1
797
7,002
1
24
45
3
-
24
-
-
2
Skills for Logistics
116
1,723
6
-
35
16
8
-
22
5
7
Summit Skills
127
1,529
11
5
5
4
67
0
-
7
1
Notes: Skills for justice has a base size less than 25 and is therefore not shown
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 78
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
10 out of 24 SSCs have a problem with recruiting sales and customer service staff in
their sector. These SSCs all have skills lacking above the national average. A further
SSC, Proskills UK, is equal to the national average. While there is not at present, an
extreme problem with recruiting sales and customer service staff in England, the fact
that 40 per cent of SSCs are experiencing higher than average recruitment difficulties
suggests that it should be an issue for concern. There is a pressing need therefore, to
reduce the number of recruitment difficulties before the problem is exacerbated.
The table below shows the difficulties experienced by each sector when recruiting in
England. At 30 per cent, retail and wholesale has the highest number of vacancies in
sales and customer service occupations. This matches the previous findings of SSCs
with Skillsmart Retail finding similar levels of skill shortage vacancies.
However there are a number of sectors which have a higher than average number of
vacancies (9 per cent) for sales and customer service these include:




Retail and wholesale (30 per cent)
Financial intermediation (16 per cent)
Transport storage and communications (11 per cent)
Manufacturing (11 per cent)
Retail and wholesale have a significantly higher number if skills shortage vacancies in
sales and customer service than any other sector although vacancies in education were
higher for the professionals occupation. Sales and customer service skill shortages are
obviously crucial for the retail and wholesale sector however manufacturing, financial
intermediation, transport storage and communication are equally important in terms of
skills shortages in their sectors.59
59
National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009: Main Report
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Skilled Trades
Personal Service
%
13
2
20
11
1
0
%
20
1
13
7
14
2
%
7
0
4
5
7
3
%
14
48
28
49
26
29
%
14
4
0
0
*
2
247
153
851
2,758
2,201
13,170
3
6
8
1
1
20
13
46
25
16
26
11
4
0
7
Financial Intermediation
Business services
Public administration and
defence
145
1,287
7
9
22 11
39
Education
481
3,961
1 42
24
5
1
Health and Social work
1,185 10,442
3 21
30
4
1
Other Services
351
4,605
3 11
32
6
3
Source: National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009: Main Report, pg 76
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Unclassified
Administrative
%
6
3
6
12
8
7
Elementary
Associate
Professionals
%
63,089
1,374
4,409
2,739
7,672
6,347
Machine
Operatives
Professionals
%
5,118
59
532
159
484
441
Sales and
Customer
Service
Managers
Overall
Agriculture
Manufacturing
Construction
Retail and Wholesale
Hotels and Catering
Transport, storage and
communications
Weighted
Row percentages
Unweighted
Table 32: Profile of skills shortage vacancies by occupation within sectors (2009) – England
%
%
%
11
31
5
3
4
55
%
1
0
*
*
0
0
9
0
11
3
30
3
5
10
13
9
9
1
2
1
2
11
16
9
48
0
6
3
0
11
1
4
1
0
21
37
35
2
1
1
2
4
4
*
1
6
1
2
8
0
0
1
*
Page 51 of 91
5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
5.1.4
Skills shortages and hard to fill vacancies in England
This section details the difficulties employers have when recruiting sales and customer
service staff in England.
Figure 8 below shows that sales and customer service has a reasonably large number of
vacancies (about 46,000). Associate professionals has the highest number of vacancies
(about 64,000), skills shortage vacancies (13,000) and hard to fill vacancies (17,000).
Figure 8: Overall distribution of vacancies and recruitment difficulties % - England
Vacancies
Hard-to-fill vacancies
Skill-shortage vacancies
70
64
61
60
Number of vacancies (000s)
55
50
46
40
46
37
29
30
20
20
20
17
13
10
10
8
11
13
9
12
9
6 5
5 4
8
5
7
4
3
0
Mangers
Professionals
Associate
professionals
Admin
Skilled Trades
Personal
Services
Sales and
customer
services
Machine
operatives
Elementary
Base: All vacancies (weighted 385,675; unweighted 35,310).
Source: National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009: Main Report, Pg 73
The number of skill shortage vacancies relative to employment in the sales and customer
service occupations (1.8 per 1,000 employees) this is amongst the lowest of all
occupational groups. This low figure is a reflection of the low number of vacancies. Of
the vacancies in sales and customer service 12 per cent of these are in areas where
specific skills are required and not being met. This has decreased by 3 per cent between
2007 and 2009. These results demonstrate that there are more skilled people in the
sales and customer service than previously.
However the proportion of vacancies where skill shortages are encountered is below the
average (12 per cent compared to 16 per cent)60. This suggests that the sales and
customer services occupations continues to face a minor problem with recruiting
appropriately skilled applicants.
60
UKCES (2009) National Employer Skill Survey 2009, Pg 73 and 74.
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Table 33: Vacancies, SSVs and SSV density by occupation - England
SSVs per
Vacancies
SSVs
1,000
employees
Un-weighted base
Overall
Managers
Professionals
Associate professionals
Administrative
Skilled trades
Personal services
Sales and customer services
Machine operatives
Elementary
35,310
385,675
19,750
36,825
64,125
45,525
28,975
54,700
46,325
20,125
61,300
5,118
63,100
3,725
8,300
12,700
4,575
8,900
9,125
5,475
2,900
6,925
% of vacs that are
SSVs
2007
2009
2.7
0.9
3.2
7.4
1.4
5.5
5.1
1.8
1.9
2.1
21
21
28
22
12
37
21
15
24
15
16
19
23
20
10
31
17
12
14
11
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 75
5.1.5
Recruitment difficulties by regions – England
There is no current information on the difficulty of recruiting specifically sales and
customer service staff by region. However, when vacancies occur in England, they are
most likely to be in London.
London accounted for the single largest share of overall employment (18 per cent),
vacancies (19 per cent), hard-to-fill vacancies (20 per cent) and skill shortage vacancies
(22 per cent), all of which are higher than its share of employment. This reflects a
disproportionately high level of recruitment difficulties in this region. The North East also
experience high levels of recruitment difficulties.
Table 34: Vacancies, hard to fill, skill shortage by regions in England
% Share of
Employment
% Share of
Vacancies
% Share of
HtfVs
% Share of
SSVs
East Midlands
10
8
11
8
13
7
13
6
London
18
19
20
22
North East
5
6
6
6
North West
13
11
10
10
South East
16
17
16
15
South West
10
10
10
10
West Midlands
10
9
8
8
( %)
Eastern
10
9
11
Yorkshire and the Humber
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 66
10
Employer reasons for recruitment difficulties are often defined as a lack of qualifications,
experience and/or skills. As figure 9 below illustrates lack of skills is the biggest problem
in recruitment across all occupations.
5.1.6
Reasons for recruitment difficulties by occupation – England
As shown below, professional occupations have the highest number of recruitment
difficulties at 82 per cent whilst this is closely followed by machine operatives (75 per
cent) and skilled trades (73 per cent). Of all occupational areas managers have the
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
lowest number of recruitment difficulties but the highest problems with lack of
experience.
Sales and customer service occupations have difficulties with recruitment due to a lack of
skills (66 per cent), experience (51 per cent) and qualifications (23 per cent). These
results indicate that skills and experience are more important than qualifications for this
occupational area.
Figure 9: Reasons for recruitment difficulties in England
Qualifications
Skills
Experience
27
Elementary
46
23
Machine operatives
70
43
75
23
51
Sales and customer service
66
43
43
Personal services occupations
65
30
Skilled Trades
32
Business and Administration
51
73
36
65
28
Associate professionals
36
69
46
43
Professionals
27
Managers
0
10
20
30
82
53
40
50
64
60
70
80
90
Percentage
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 81
5.2
Skills Gaps
5.2.1 Skills gaps by occupation
This section looks at the extent to which employers are experiencing skills deficiencies or
gaps among their existing workforce.
As shown in Figure 10 below, sales and customer service have the highest reported skills
gaps in England in 2010 at 18 per cent followed by elementary skills (17 per cent) and
managers (14 per cent).
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Figure 10: Share of skills gaps by occupation - England
20%
18%
18%
17%
16%
14%
14%
13%
12%
10%
9%
9%
8%
8%
7%
7%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Admin
Professionals
Managers
Skilled
Trades
Associate
professionals
Personal
services
Sales and Machine Elementary
customer operatives
service
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 99
Overall, results below show that sales and customer service has the highest percentage
of staff reported as having skills gaps (10 per cent) and the highest number of skills
gaps at 311,000.
Table 35: Skills gaps by occupation - England
Total
employment
(000s)
Number
of skills
gaps
(000s)
% of staff
reported as
having a
skills gap
Share of
employm
ent
Share of
all skills
gaps
22,977
1,702
7%
100%
100%
4,219
233
6%
18%
14%
2,575
147
6%
11%
9%
Associate professionals
1,721
117
7%
7%
7%
Administrative staff
3,207
219
7%
14%
13%
Skilled trade people
1,612
135
8%
7%
8%
Personal service
Sales and customer
service staff
Machine operatives
1,797
148
8%
8%
9%
3,041
311
10%
13%
18%
1,571
111
7%
7%
7%
Elementary staff
3,233
282
9%
14%
17%
All occupations
Managers and senior
officials
Professionals
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 99
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England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
5.2.2 Skills gaps by sector skills council
Table 36 shows how the skills gaps are distributed by occupation within SSCs. Sales and
customer service occupations show the highest overall percentage of skills gaps across
all occupations at 18 per cent. 28 per cent of all SSCs show Sales and customer service
as having the highest percentage of skills gaps across all occupations. These are:
Skillsmart Retail (63 per cent)
Financial Skills Partnership (38 per cent)
Creative and Cultural (31 per cent)
Skillset (28 per cent)
Cogent (22 per cent)
Improve Ltd (22 per cent)
Skillsfast UK (22 per cent)







2
11
-
13
12
25
-
3
8
9
11
13
5
1
31
2
10
5
3
28
23
-
9
9
9
29
11
12
5
1
22
1
3
10
12
25
-
-
38
-
1
4
5
11
4
-
17
22
22
7
Asset Skills
73
17
7
12
Cogent
22
14
6
4
Construction Skills
73
20
9
Creative and Cultural Skills
11
21
6
Energy and Utility Skills
17
15
e-skills UK
51
16
Financial Skills Partnership
82
14
Go Skills
20
13
Number of
skills gap
(000s_
9
Government Skills
Elementary
6
12
14
Overall
Machine
Operatives
Personal
Services
23
1,702
(%)
Sales and
Customer
Service
Skilled Trades
9
Associate
Professionals
8
Professionals
13
Managers
Administrative
Table 36: Distribution of skills gaps by occupation and SSC - England
18
7
17
9
1
23
22
21
11
22
27
9
20
34
2
-
3
2
2
119
13
9
11
8
23
-
9
9
9
IMI
31
12
1
2
12
37
-
24
6
6
Improve Ltd
32
10
1
2
6
4
-
22
21
21
Lantra
26
13
4
4
9
23
8
9
9
21
Lifelong Learning UK
75
12
44
9
15
2
7
4
-
7
180
10
1
1
3
5
1
18
1
60
Proskills UK
30
13
2
4
9
17
-
9
26
20
Skills Active
20
11
3
6
11
10
17
14
1
28
Skill fast –UK
12
13
2
6
12
4
-
22
21
21
Skillset
16
13
18
16
11
5
3
28
1
4
Skillsmart Retail
Skills for Care &
Development
Skills for Health
189
10
1
2
4
2
-
63
1
16
70
11
5
5
9
4
57
3
-
6
131
15
10
7
23
1
36
1
2
5
Skills for Justice
11
13
6
38
22
1
14
2
-
3
Skills for Logistics
95
15
3
3
14
4
-
17
22
22
Summit Skills
21
12
2
3
10
61
-
3
2
6
SEMTA
st
People 1
- denotes figures greater than 0% but less than 0.5%
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 108
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
The table below shows the main skills gaps by SSC. Those in red indicate where
customer handling skills are the highest skills gap across all SSCs and those in green are
second only to technical and practical skills. The SSCs with the highest skills gaps in
Customer handling are shown below:






People 1st (69 per cent)
Financial Skills Partnership (65 per cent)
Skillsmart Retail (63 per cent)
E-skills UK (59 per cent)
Creative and cultural skills (48 per cent)
IMI (43 per cent)
Technical and
practical
Customer-handling
Team working
Oral communication
Problem-solving
Written
communication
Management
General IT skills
Literacy
Office admin
Numeracy
IT Professional
Foreign language
skills
Table 37: Nature of skills gaps by SSC Sector - England
Overall
64
51
50
46
46
37
34
28
24
22
21
17
13
Asset Skills
61
48
45
50
37
50
38
27
27
26
19
18
16
Cogent
69
40
57
48
54
40
28
34
25
22
31
14
10
Construction Skills
Creative and Cultural
Skills
Energy and Utility
Skills
e-skills UK
Financial Skills
Partnership
GoSkills
62
40
43
37
41
37
40
33
15
19
17
18
7
59
48
43
45
42
34
43
33
21
26
19
20
13
70
55
64
63
62
66
33
42
43
15
25
20
2
71
59
32
55
57
45
51
14
10
20
9
25
29
81
65
43
43
39
38
34
35
15
22
14
29
22
43
71
77
76
69
69
45
62
55
52
52
25
35
Government Skills
62
64
66
55
49
58
59
42
38
48
25
27
2
SEMTA
76
32
52
42
55
40
41
37
27
25
26
19
12
IMI
68
43
32
39
40
28
24
30
24
24
19
17
10
Improve Ltd
75
19
54
51
52
44
26
32
34
14
38
14
27
Lantra
75
40
40
37
40
27
26
24
21
19
21
15
8
76
38
45
33
39
30
39
43
25
30
22
28
8
People 1
59
69
57
51
48
26
33
16
21
14
24
11
17
Proskills UK
75
32
49
36
54
27
28
30
22
18
29
17
14
Skills Active
65
62
57
48
44
34
30
22
17
19
17
13
8
Skillfast-UK
52
42
43
46
36
37
27
27
29
18
32
14
20
Skillset
66
44
50
51
55
33
57
36
15
29
15
29
9
Skillsmart Retail
Skills for Care &
Development
Skills for Health
53
63
53
47
44
24
25
19
17
14
16
8
9
64
50
48
44
51
51
35
35
31
23
20
19
15
64
51
55
43
43
41
37
31
32
27
25
21
11
Skills for Justice
60
45
41
59
59
66
54
38
22
48
17
18
7
Skills for Logistics
62
42
57
47
49
39
34
30
30
26
25
16
14
19
19
17
4
(%)
Lifelong Learning UK
st
Summit Skills
74
32
33
27
36
28
24
23
18
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 125
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
5.2.3 Skills gap by Industry - England
Table 38 shows the distribution of skills gaps within SIC sectors. At 18 per cent, sales
and customer service occupations have the highest overall number of skills gaps across
all sectors in the UK. In particular, retail and wholesale (50 per cent), and financial
intermediation (38 per cent) have the highest number of skill shortage vacancies in sales
and Customer Service Occupations.
Managers
Professionals
Associate
Professionals
Administrative
Skilled Trades
Personal
Services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
Operatives
Elementary
Table 38: Profile of skills gap vacancies by occupation within SIC sectors - England
Overall
Agriculture
Mining and quarrying
Manufacturing
Electricity, gas and
water
Construction
Retail and wholesale
Hotels and catering
Transport, storage and
communications
Financial
intermediation
Business services
Public administration
and defence
Education
1,702
18
2
204
14
15
13
13
9
2
39
7
7
2
4
8
13
7
7
8
9
29
16
15
9
*
0
*
18
2
1
8
7
13
18
24
17
30
2
14
9
26
4
6
20
22
0
11
9
1
77
293
165
16
11
9
4
1
1
5
2
*
11
7
3
44
8
5
*
1
3
50
17
5
5
1
12
16
63
89
13
5
4
11
3
1
22
27
13
82
14
10
12
25
*
*
38
*
1
298
20
15
13
17
7
1
14
4
10
59
22
9
21
30
3
4
7
1
2
110
11
36
9
12
2
19
2
*
9
Health and social work
212
12
9
7
18
2
24
2
2
5
92
14
5
6
20
8
11
15
2
19
( %)
Number
of skills
gaps
(000s)
Other services
* denotes a figure less than 0.5 per cent
As shown in Table 39 below, overall 51 per cent of all industries show customer handling
skills as the skills most lacking except for technical and practical skills where 64 per cent
of these skills are lacking. The other industries where the lack of customer handling skills
are most predominant are as follows:




Hotel and catering (69 per cent)
Transport, storage and communication (58 per cent)
Public administration and defence (58 per cent)
Retail and wholesale (57 per cent)
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
General IT
user skills
Literacy
Office admin
Numeracy
IT
professionals s
Foreign
languages
64
51
50
46
46
37
Overall
73
34
40
38
40
24
Agriculture
77
53
16
17
13
16
Mining and quarrying
73
29
52
45
53
39
Manufacturing
53
25
53
32
32
43
Electricity, gas and water
68
35
41
34
40
32
Construction
57
57
51
45
43
27
Retail and wholesale
60
69
58
52
47
25
Hotels and catering
Transport, storage and
55
58
67
55
62
53
communication
81
65
43
43
39
38
Financial Intermediation
61
47
41
45
42
42
Business Services
57
58
54
52
46
49
Public administration and defence
72
38
48
37
40
34
Education
66
52
51
43
49
44
Health and social work
67
56
55
51
48
40
Other services
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 122
Management
Written
communication
Problem solving
Oral
communication
Team working
Customer
handling
(%)
Technical and
practical
Table 39: Nature of skills gaps by sector - England
34
27
17
37
32
31
26
33
28
22
13
35
36
28
23
17
24
19
5
29
9
18
19
22
22
15
53
23
21
19
18
13
21
19
3
30
1
21
18
24
17
13
1
17
1
14
11
12
13
9
14
3
6
10
17
36
37
37
32
30
18
19
34
41
48
36
37
39
35
29
36
40
33
32
15
19
24
30
32
28
22
24
40
25
26
18
14
14
15
23
22
25
29
22
19
27
21
24
22
13
4
10
13
9
5.2.4 Skills gaps by regions in England
Table 40 shows how skills gaps are distributed by occupation within region, with the
profile of employment in brackets for comparison. This table presents row percentages
that sum to 100 per cent (subject to rounding).
Occupationally, all regions display the national pattern, with a higher proportion of skills
gaps in sales and customer service and in elementary positions than the proportion of
employment in these two groups. The concentration of gaps within sales and customer
service employees is particularly strong in the North West where this occupation
accounts for almost a fifth of all skills gaps in the region (19 per cent compared with 12
per cent of employment) and in London (20 per cent of skills gaps compared with 14 per
cent of employment).
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Professionals
Associate
Professionals
Administrative
Skilled Trades
Personal
Services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
Operatives
Elementary
14
9
7
13
8
9
18
7
17
(18)
14
(11)
6
(7)
8
(14)
14
(7)
8
(8)
9
(13)
18
(7)
5
(14)
20
(18)
12
(10)
9
(8)
5
(14)
14
(7)
7
(8)
8
(8)
16
(7)
12
(16)
18
(17)
15
(10)
13
(6)
10
(14)
14
(8)
3
(8)
5
(11)
20
(9)
4
(16)
16
(21)
14
(16)
5
(10)
9
(15)
11
(4)
9
(5)
8
(14)
14
(3)
8
(12)
20
(16)
13
(6)
6
(9)
8
(14)
13
(7)
11
(8)
8
(11)
19
(9)
6
(14)
17
(17)
14
(10)
8
(8)
6
(14)
13
(7)
8
(9)
11
(12)
21
(7)
5
(16)
14
(19)
12
(10)
9
(7)
5
(13)
9
(8)
10
(9)
9
(15)
18
(6)
7
(13)
20
(18)
14
(11)
9
(6)
6
(13)
12
(9)
9
(8)
9
(14)
16
(7)
10
(14)
15
(18)
14
(11)
8
(6)
5
(13)
15
(8)
9
(8)
10
(13)
16
(9)
8
(13)
16
(17)
(9)
(7)
(14)
(8)
(9)
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 114
(13)
(9)
(15)
(%)
Skills gap (profile
of employment)
Number of
skills gap
(000s_
Managers
Table 40: Number of skills gaps across regions in England
1,702
Eastern
161
East Midlands
137
London
291
North East
61
North West
209
South East
303
South West
203
West Midlands
196
Yorkshire and the
Humber
142
5.2.5 Reasons for skills gaps - England
The main contributory factors causing skills gaps across all employers are identified
below:





A lack of experience and new recently recruited staff (71 per cent)
High staff turnover (31 per cent)
Staff lacking motivation or interested in training and development (29 per cent)
Employers’ failure to provide (adequate) training for staff (25 per cent)
Recruitment problems (11 per cent)
While a lack of experience/staff and being recently recruited is the most common cause
of skills gaps for all occupational groups, the secondary reasons vary by occupation.
For sales and customer service staff, personal services staff and those employed in
elementary occupations, a lack of motivation was the second most common cause of
skills gaps.61
61
National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009: Main report, Evidence Report 23, August 2010 pg 115
Page 60 of 91
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
5.3
Future skill needs
5.3.1 Upskilling by occupation - England
Employers anticipating the need for staff to acquire new skills or knowledge were asked
which single occupation would be most affected. As illustrated in Figure 11 by far the
most common occupation reported was managerial staff, with 40 per cent of those
employers seeing a need for upskilling reporting that at least one of their managerial
staff had upskilling needs. Sales and customer services staff was the next most likely
occupation needing to upskill, being cited by 10 per cent of employers, followed by
administrative positions and skilled trades occupations (each reported by 8 per cent). All
other occupational groupings were reported by 6 per cent or fewer of employers
identifying the need for staff to upskill (though nine per cent were unsure which single
occupation would be most affected).
Figure 11: Occupations needing upskilling - England
45%
40%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
10%
8%
6%
5%
8%
5%
5%
5%
3%
0%
Managers Professionals Associate
Admin
Professionals
Skilled
Trades
Personal
Services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine Elementary
Operative
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 145
5.3.2 Upskilling by SSC - England
By SSC, in the ‘most mentioned’ category, nearly all SSCs mentioned managers as the
most important area where they needed to upskill. Of the 25 SSCs, 21 rated managers
as their first choice. In the 2nd most mentioned category, 5 SSCs rated sales and
customer service staff as needing upskilling and in the 3rd most mentioned category 3
SSCs selected this area.
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Table 41: Occupations most needing up skilling by SSC - England
Most mentioned
2nd most mentioned
3rd most mentioned
Managers (44%)
Skilled trade (16%)
Elementary (8%)
Cogent
Managers (35%)
Sales and customer service
(22%)
Machine operatives (13%)
Proskills
Managers (35%)
Skilled trade (15%)
Machine operatives (14%)
Improve
Managers (33%)
Machine operatives (18%)
Elementary (12%)
Skillsfast-UK
Managers (41%)
Sales and customer service
(14%)
Machine operatives (9%)
SEMTA
Managers (33%)
Skilled trade (22%)
Machine operatives (10%)
Energy and Utility
Skills
Managers (30%)
Machine operatives (18%)
Skilled trade (10%)
Constructions Skills
Managers (44%)
Skilled trade (16%)
Professionals (10%)
Summit Skills
Skilled trade (44%)
Mangers (36%)
IMI
Skilled trade (44%)
Managers (26%)
Skillsmart Retail
Managers (46%)
Sales and customer service
(31%)
Admin/secretarial (4%)
People 1st
Managers (46%)
Elementary (27%)
Sales and customer service
(10%)
GoSkills
Managers (33%)
Machine operatives (25%)
Admin/secretarial (12%)
Skills for Logistics
Managers (40%)
Machine operatives and
Admin/secretarial (10%)
Financial Services
Skills Council
Managers (35%)
Sales and customer service
(18%)
Sales and customer service
(23%)
Asset Skills
Managers (49%)
Admin/secretarial (16%)
Sales and customer service
(12%)
E-skills UK
Managers (40%)
Associate professionals
(15%)
Professionals (13%)
Managers (13%)
Professionals (12%)
Admin/secretarial (21%)
Professionals (12%)
Professionals (26%)
Admin/secretarial (13%)
SSC
Lantra
Associate professionals
(4%)
Sales and customer service
(8%)
Admin/secretarial (16%)
Lifelong Learning UK
Admin/secretarial
(26%)
Associate professional
(22%)
Managers (35%)
Skills for Health
Managers (29%)
Personal services (19%)
Professionals (13%)
Skills for Care and
Development
Managers (38%)
Personal services (31%)
Admin/secretarial (7%)
Skillset
Managers (47%)
Creative and Cultural
Managers (49%)
Skills Active
Managers (45%)
Personal services (9%)
Admin/secretarial (9%)
Non-SSC employers
Managers (38%)
Personal services (12%)
Professionals (11%)
Government Skills
Skills for Justice
Associate professionals
(15%)
Associate professionals
(11%)
Admin/secretarial (6%)
Admin/secretarial (11%)
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 147-8
5.3.3 Skills needed for upskilling – England
It is not surprising that the sales and customer service occupation has the highest skills
needed for upskilling in customer handling at 63 per cent. Similarly the managers
occupation has the highest upskilling needs in the management skills area.
In terms of upskilling, the highest overall percentage of skills required across all skills
areas are:
 Technical and practical (63 per cent)
 Management (38 per cent)
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5.
England – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps


Customer handling (37 per cent)
General IT user (37 per cent)
Interestingly, the skills that follow these in terms of upskilling are the generic skills of:
 Problem solving (35 per cent)
 Team working (35 per cent)
 Communication (32 per cent)
 Oral communication (27 per cent)
Apart from technical/practical and management skills, in the lists above all the other skill
areas are generic which demonstrated how important these skills are to employers and
the future development of staff through upskilling.
Skilled trades
Personal
services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
operatives
Elementary
4,362
3,348
4,503
5,561
3,051
6,246
2,444
3,124
937,597
19,480
414,
256
62,479
50,718
81,603
87,090
51,189
106,057
28,365
55,841
63
56
74
80
57
80
71
60
74
64
52,119
Managers
Administrative
Technical and
practical skills
Management
Associate
Professionals
Un-weighted
base
Weighted base
(00s)
Overall
(%)
Professionals
Table 42: Skills sought for up skilling by occupation - England
38
45
41
36
32
26
34
39
20
30
General IT user
Customerhandling
Problem
solving
Team working
37
41
39
37
57
26
29
35
21
23
37
30
28
35
37
31
48
63
29
57
35
33
33
37
34
36
42
42
33
41
35
30
31
31
30
31
54
45
37
54
Communication
Oral
communication
IT Professional
32
27
27
33
34
26
48
45
30
47
27
22
22
25
27
22
42
40
25
43
24
27
35
33
35
16
13
17
9
11
Office Admin
Written
communication
Numeracy
23
24
17
17
39
14
18
26
12
15
21
18
19
23
23
17
32
24
18
24
14
12
12
11
14
11
17
17
14
24
Literacy
13
10
12
12
14
12
22
Foreign
11
12
13
8
10
6
11
languages
Source: UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England 2009, page 151
15
13
21
10
5
12
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Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
The Scottish Government has refreshed the Skills for Scotland Strategy, which aims to
simplify the skills system, empower individuals and employers to access help and
support more effectively and better meet the needs of the key economic sectors and
industries of the future. Building on the 2007 skills strategy, it takes into account the
changed economic climate and the new challenges facing businesses looking to support
sustainable employment. Customer Service is continually identified as a Scottish
Government priority for skills development as these skills are seen as fundamental to the
success of any organisation and many job roles across the private, public and voluntary
sector.
In 2007 Skills for Scotland – A Lifelong Skills Strategy was published and set out
ambitions for the development and better use of skills across three strategic themes
which involved individual development; needs of the economy; demands of employers
and creation of cohesive structures. In 2010 this strategy was refreshed to include how
policies on skills and training will be developed within the new, challenging, economic
environment that Scotland faces62. In defining the skills needed to address these issues
the strategy highlights the softer skills needed to aid recovery “Employers will also look
for softer skills that can be crucial to productivity and success.” In particular the softer
skills are identified as customer service skills, teamwork, communication skills, problem
solving ability, analytical skills, enterprise and entrepreneurial skills, career
management, and leadership63.
6.1
Skills shortages
The number of vacancies and vacancy rates in Scotland has fallen since 2008. In
addition the numbers of hard-to-fill vacancies and skill shortage vacancies have also
fallen. At the time of the 2010 survey, there were 41,600 vacancies (equivalent to 1.9
per cent of employees)64.
6.1.1
Skills shortages by occupation
As table 43 below shows sales and customer service occupations in Scotland constitute
17 per cent of vacancies across all occupations with 7,000 vacancies. Elementary staff
have the highest overall number of vacancies at 7,100.
Vacancy rates are highest among:
 personal service occupations (2.9 per cent)
 sales and customer service (2.5 per cent)
 associate professionals (2.5 per cent)
 skilled trades (2.5 per cent)
 elementary staff (2.4 per cent)
And lowest for:
 managers and senior officials (0.5 per cent)
 professionals (0.9 per cent).
62
Skills for Scotland: Accelerating the Recovery and Increasing Sustainable Economic Growth, Smarter
Scotland, October 2010
63
Ibid
64
Skills in Scotland 2010, Scottish Government Social Research, 2011
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Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Table 43: Employment and vacancy rate by occupation - Scotland
Occupations
No of
Employees
No of
Vacancies
Vacancy
Rate
Managers and senior officials
247,000
1,300
0.5%
Professionals
Associate professionals
Administrative staff
435,900
189,400
290,800
3,800
4,700
4,200
0.9%
2.5%
1.4%
Skilled tradespeople
176,200
4,400
2.5%
Personal service staff
Sales and customer service staff
Machine operatives
199,100
317,400
167,700
5,800
7,000
3,300
2.9%
2.2%
2.0%
Elementary staff
293,800
7,100
Source: The Scottish Government (2011) Skills in Scotland 2010. Scottish
Government. Social Research
6.1.2
2.4%
Vacancies and hard to fill vacancies (HtfVs)
As shown below, elementary staff shows the highest number of vacancies across
occupations in Scotland at 7,100 closely followed by sales and customer service
vacancies of 7,000. In terms of hard to fill vacancies sales and customer service has a
lower than average percentage of hard-to-fill vacancies as a percentage of all vacancies
(35 per cent compared to 16 per cent). This is also the case for skill shortage vacancies
(18 per cent compared to 10 per cent).
However skill-shortage vacancies as a
percentage of hard-to-fill vacancies are significantly higher (52 per cent compared to 68
per cent) with only Skilled Trade people having higher incidences of skills shortages as a
percentage of hard-to-fill vacancies (52 per cent compared to 71 per cent).
.
Table 44: Distribution of vacancies, HtfVs and skills shortages by occupation - Scotland
SSVs as a
No.
HtFVs as SSVs as a
No of
No. of
% of
of
a % of
% of
Occupations
vacancies HtFVs
HtFVs
SSV
vacancies vacancies
vacancies
43,900 15,400 8,000
35%
18%
52%
All occupations
Managers and senior
1,300
600
46%
28%
60%
officials
3,800
1,100
26%
9%
34%
Professionals
Associate professionals
4,700
1,500
900
31%
19%
60%
Administrative staff
4,200
-
300
27%
8%
28%
Skilled trade people
4,400
-
-
61%
43%
71%
Personal service
Sales and customer
service staff
5,800
2,500
-
43%
21%
48%
7,000
1,100
-
16%
10%
68%
Machine operatives
3,300
2,000
-
61%
39%
63%
7,100
2,400
800
22%
11%
34%
Elementary staff
Source: The Scottish Government (2011) Skills in Scotland 2010. Scottish Government. Social
Research
6.1.3
Skills sought in skill shortage areas
The overall picture of skills lacking for Scottish employers puts customer handling skills
(64 per cent) as the biggest skill shortage area. This is followed closely by planning and
organising (62 per cent) and oral communication (62 per cent). All other skills above 50
per cent (except technical and practical skills) are generic skills that are embedded in the
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6.
Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
customer service skill area.
Therefore, when talking about customer handling skills
employers are focusing on the need for these skill shortages in customer service and/ or
contact centre employment.
Figure 12: Skills sought within skill shortage areas
Basic computer literacy/IT
19%
Advanced IT or software
24%
Using numbers
26%
Literacy
30%
Strategic management
39%
Written communication
52%
Team working
55%
Problem-solving
59%
Technical & practical
60%
Oral communication
61%
Planning and organising
62%
Customer-handing
64%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Source: SESS 2010, page 22
6.1.4 Reasons for recruitment difficulties
Findings from the Scottish Employer Skills Survey (SESS) 2010 indicate that the most
common reason for hard-to-fill vacancies is due to:



6.2
a general shortage of suitable candidates (45 per cent)
the rural and unattractive location (15 per cent)
unattractive terms and conditions of employment (12 per cent)
Skills Gaps
Skill gaps affect 139,100 (or 6 per cent) of employees; and 15 per cent of workplaces
reported at least one employee with a skill gap. The sector that has the highest skill gap
rate is hotels and restaurants. Skill gaps arise mainly because of weaknesses in softer
core skills such as planning and organising, customer handling, problem solving and
team working. Employers are active in their response to skill gaps - most commonly
providing further training for staff65.
Employers stated that skill gaps among their workforce were caused by changing skill
needs arising from:



65
the development of new products and services;
the introduction of new working practices;
the introduction of new technology.
The Scottish Government, Scottish Employer Skills Survey (SESS) 2010, Skills in Scotland , March 2011
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6.
Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Employers could cite more than one reason and, in all, 42 per cent of establishments
with a skill gap said that they were caused by one or more of the previous reasons:
17 per cent of establishments attributed skill gaps to the development of new
products or services;
28 per cent to the introduction of new working practices; and
21 per cent cited the introduction of new technology.



6.2.1
Skill gaps by occupation
In 2010, 6 per cent or 131,100 employees were affected by skills gaps in Scotland. This
was roughly equivalent to 15 per cent of establishments at that time66. Evidence shows
that sales and customer service occupations have the highest number of employees with
skills gaps at 9 per cent followed by skilled trades and personal services with both at 8
per cent. It can be expected that the highest percentage of skills gaps are experienced
by employees either starting out in employment and/or changing jobs or job roles.
Managers and professionals have the lowest skills gaps amongst their employees at 3
per cent each. The reason for this could be that these occupational groups will usually
have undergone training and development in order to build a career and are likely to
already have qualifications and/or higher levels of experience.
Figure 13: Skills gaps as a proportion of employees by occupation - Scotland
10%
9%
9%
8%
8%
8%
7%
7%
6%
6%
6%
5%
5%
4%
3%
3%
3%
2%
1%
0% Managers Professionals Associate Admin
Professional
Skilled Personal
Trades Services
Source: SESS, 2010
6.2.2
Machine Elementary
Sales &
Customer Operatives
Service
Skills sought in skills gaps areas
Planning and organising and problem solving are the skills most lacking when referring
to skills gaps at 59 per cent and 57 per cent respectively. Other skill areas that are 50
per cent or more are customer handling (51 per cent) and team working (50 per cent).
The Scottish Employer Skills Survey (SESS) 2010 states that “in each of the years we
have conducted the survey it has been the softer core skills which are most often cited
by employers”. Employers stated that “the reason for skills gaps arose mainly because of
weaknesses in softer core skills”.
66
The Scottish Government, Scottish Employer Skills Survey (SESS) 2010, Skills in Scotland , March 2011
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6.
Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Figure 14: Skills lacking among employees with skills gaps - Scotland
20%
23%
24%
Using numbers
Advanced IT or software
Literacy
26%
Basic computer literacy/IT
30%
32%
Strategic management
Written
communication
Oral communication
42%
48%
Other technical&practical
prpractical
Team
working
50%
51%
Customer-handing
57%
Problem-solving
59%
Planning and organising
SESS, 2010
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
6.2.3 Reasons for skills gaps
The top five reasons for skills gaps in Scotland are reported as:





People not being in their job long enough (61 per cent)
Training programmes only partially completed (47 per cent)
Insufficient training and development for staff (37 per cent)
Workforce finding it difficult to keep up with change (27 per cent)
Recruitment problems (18 per cent)
Figure 15: Reasons for employees having skills gaps - Scotland
Don't know
1%
Other
Staff lack motivation
High staff turnover
5%
7%
8%
Recruitment problems
18%
Workforce find it difficult
to keep up with change
Insufficient training and
development for staff
Training progress only
partially completed
People not been in the job
for long enough
0%
27%
37%
47%
61%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Source: Scottish Employer Skills Survey 2010, page 29
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Scotland – Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
6.2.4 The effects of skills gaps
The most important skills gaps that affect organisations in Scotland are:




difficulties
difficulties
increasing
difficulties
meeting customer objectives (63 per cent)
meeting required quality standards (53 per cent)
operating/running costs (49 per cent)
introducing new working practices (43 per cent)
“These were also the impacts cited most often by employers in previous surveys”67.
67
The Scottish Government, Scottish Employer Skills Survey (SESS) 2010, Skills in Scotland , March 2011
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7.
7.1
Wales - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Occupations in Wales
Relative to the UK there is a higher proportion of employment in primary activities in
Wales, including agriculture, and a lower proportion in service activities; although Wales
has strong representation in some specific service activities. Manufacturing and
construction are slightly “over-represented” in Wales.
The occupational structure of employment in Wales shows that the higher skilled groups
of managers/senior officials and associate professional/technical employ the largest
numbers of people. Together, they account for more than a quarter of all jobs.
The distribution of employment by occupation and sector is strongly gendered. For
example, males occupy the vast majority of skilled trades and operative employment
while females dominate in administrative / secretarial and personal service occupations.
This is a particular issue where occupations with high levels of gender segregation have
significant existing and / or future skills shortages68.
Table 45: The 10 fastest growing occupations in Wales 2004-2009
Occupation
2004
2009
Change
%
Change
Predominant
qualification Level
Information and communication
7,000
11,800
4,800
69% Level 4
technology professionals
Quality and customer care managers
3,600
5,800
2,200
60% Level 3 and above
Health professionals
11,000
17,400
6,400
58% Level 4
Childcare and related personal services
25,600
38,700
13,100
51% Level 3 and above
Public service professionals (e.g. socials
7,600
11,300
3,600
48% Level 4
workers)
IT service delivery occupations (e.g. IT
5,100
6,900
1,800
36% Level 4
operations technicians
Customer service occupations
15,600
20,900
5,300
34% Level 2 and below
Business and finance associate
13,200
17,700
4,500
34% Level 4
professionals (e.g. financial analysts and
advisers)
Food preparation trades (e.g. chefs)
16,800
20,800
4,000
24% Level 2 and below
Hairdresser and related occupations
8,200
10,000
1,800
22% Level 2 and below
Source: ONS (2010) Annual Population Survey
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Key Findings, June 2011
Customer service occupations in 2009 had the second highest number of employees
amongst the 10 fastest growing occupations in Wales 20,900, the highest being childcare
and related personal services with 38,700. However, the percentage changes to
employment levels were significantly lower at 34 per cent.
The National Skills Audit for Wales 2011 key findings include the IER database
development for Working Futures 2007-2017 where it is stated that, by 2017, more
than 400,000 jobs will still exist in the three occupational groups of sales and customer
service, machine and transport operatives and elementary occupations representing 28
per cent of all jobs in Wales.
Forecasts also suggest that, in broad terms, expansion in the number of jobs is most
likely in the higher skilled groups of managers, professionals and associate professional /
technical roles. The growth in these three groups in the period to 2017 is likely to be
equivalent to the entire net increase in employment for the period. These jobs account
for 37 per cent of current jobs and are projected to account for 41 per cent by 2017 – a
growth of more than 70,000 jobs. The other key area of growth is personal service
68
Source: UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Volume 1: Key
Findings, June 2011
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7.
Wales - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
occupations, where 24,000 additional jobs are projected to arise. A contraction in the
number of jobs is expected in administrative / secretarial, skilled manual trades and
operative occupational groups.
“Growing occupational and skills demands in customer service, including business
services, financial services, hospitality, as well as after-care services in manufacturing.
This is a large occupational area with significant projected growth and is essential to the
quality of service delivery”69.
7.2
Skills shortages
In terms of skills shortages and skills gaps it should be noted that for the purpose of this
report the level of skills shortages and gaps in Wales are taken from the results of the
Future Skills Wales 2005 Sector Skills Survey, using National Employer Skills Survey
(NESS) data for England. This data coupled with a time series extension to 2009
discussed in the National Audit 201170 forms the baseline for this report as it is identified
as the most recent data that is available.
7.2.1
Vacancies and hard to fill vacancies (HtfVs)
The table below shows the employment, skills vacancies and shortages by occupational
group. Sales and customer service staff accounted for 14 per cent of all employment in
2005; 12 per cent of HtFVs and 8 per cent of SSVs. Sales and customer service and
professionals (both at 14 per cent) have the highest share of employment across all
occupations. Although sales and customer service has one of the highest shares of
employment, it has one of the lowest percentage shares of HtFVs vacancies as a
percentage of employment. In addition, the percentage shares of skills shortage
vacancies are amongst the lowest for sales and customer service.
Table 46: Employment, vacancies and skills shortages by occupation - Wales
Total hard% share
% share
Total skill
% share of
to-fill
of hardof skill
shortage
total
vacancies as
to-fill
shortage
vacancies as %
employment
% of
vacancies
vacancies
of employment
employment
All occupations
99
99
99
Managers and senior
13
3
*
5
*
officials
Professionals
14
6
1
8
*
Associate
7
15
3
23
2
professionals
Administrative staff
11
5
1
4
*
Skilled trade people
8
18
3
26
2
Personal service
Sales and customer
service staff
Machine operatives
8
13
2
9
1
14
12
1
8
*
12
9
1
10
*
2
6
*
Elementary staff
12
18
note some columns do not add up to 100 due to rounding
Source: Future Skills Wales (2005)
69
Source: UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Key Findings, June
2011, page 28
70
Source: UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Key Findings, June
2011, page 10
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Wales - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
7.2.2
Reasons for hard to fill vacancies by occupation
Table 47 shows the main reasons that vacancies are hard to fill by occupation. In
particular it is noted that of the nine occupations five of these see the ‘Lack of skills the
organisation demands’ as the first choice amongst the skills shortage areas.
Unweighted
1,543
Weighted
12,743
Lack of skills the
28
organisation demands
Lack of qualifications
14
Lack of work
14
experience
Low number of
applicants with
19
required attitude, etc.
Not enough people
27
interested in job type
Low number of
15
applicants generally
Wagers lower than
9
other firms
Benefits trap/problem
3
with benefits
Location of firm/poor
11
transport
Unattractive/poor
4
terms and conditions
Poor career
1
progression
Long hours/shift work
13
Competition from
4
other employers
Other
2
No particular reason
1
Don't know/not stated
5
Small base (less than 100)
*less than 0.5%
**54
374
Elementary staff
Machine
operatives
Sales and
customer service
Personal service
Skilled
tradespeople
Administrative
staff
Associate
professionals
Professionals
Total
(%)
Managers and
senior officials
Table 47: Reasons for HtFVs by occupations - Wales
103
224 **90
258
176
195
230
208
752 1,973 686 2,343 1,606 1,601 1,133 2,236
44
42
39
13
45
15
19
36
13
11
21
27
12
23
12
1
9
5
21
12
17
13
26
11
9
13
7
9
12
11
23
24
19
32
8
19
10
25
29
22
26
28
11
29
38
20
11
15
8
27
10
13
6
15
13
15
6
8
6
12
1
18
12
_
1
1
2
1
3
2
1
8
13
18
12
6
12
14
3
3
17
_
3
2
7
2
4
7
3
5
_
_
*
6
*
4
2
1
1
10
*
5
7
7
14
14
21
25
6
1
5
5
3
6
4
5
16
_
2
2
_
_
1
_
2
*
2
6
5
_
8
2
_
6
2
1
5
*
_
5
1
2
7
Source: Future Skills Wales (2005)
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7.
Wales - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
For sales and customer service occupations the first choice amongst the reasons given is
the ‘low number of applicants with required attitude, etc’. This finding indicates that
recruitment agencies see customer service as an easy option and therefore this
occupation is directed towards candidates who don’t have the basic skills that are
needed for customer service which includes the more generic skills of communication,
working with others, problem solving etc. With the ongoing growth of customer service
occupations referred to above, this problem will continue to grow unless pre-employment
training in the more generic skills areas are tackled.
As an occupation in its own right customer service is one of the most important
occupations across all sectors. Evidence of the need for these and customer handling
skills feature very highly in nearly all sectors, and across the UK, regarding the
difficulties they find when reporting their needs.
7.2.3
Skills sought in skill shortage areas
The most important skills sought in skills shortage areas in Wales are other technical or
practical skills at 52 per cent. Customer handling skills are the second to this at 44 per
cent. As with previous findings the generic skills associated with communication,
problem solving and team working also come high in the list of skills sought. These skills
are intrinsically linked to customer handling skills and reinforces the need for more
development within the generic skills areas if individuals are going to work in customer
service occupations and/or contact centres.
Figure 16: Skills sought in skill shortage areas – Wales
Welsh language
13%
General IT User
15%
IT Professional
17%
Using numbers
25%
Management
27%
Literacy
30%
Team working
37%
Problem-solving
41%
Communication
43%
Customer-handing
Other technical or
practical
44%
52%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Source: Future Skills Wales (2005)
7.3
7.3.1
Skills gaps
Skill gaps by occupation
In the sales and customer service occupation total employment, ‘number of skills gaps’
and ‘total number of employees with skills gaps’ and ‘skills gaps as a percent of
employment’ are the highest in every category and across all occupations.
With total
employment at 155,427 and the number of skills gaps at 15,431 these figures show that
10 per cent of the proportion of skills gaps to employees is at the highest rate. By
comparison, manger and senior officials and associate professions have disproportionally
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Wales - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
fewer skills gaps relative to the proportion of people employed in the occupations (at 3
per cent each).
Table 48: Skills gaps by occupation - Wales
Total
employment
(000s)
Managers and senior officials
Professionals
Associate professionals
Administrative staff
Skilled trade people
Personal service
Sales and customer service staff
Machine operatives
Elementary staff
Number of
skills gaps
(000s)
Total number of
employees with
skills gaps as a
proportion of total
employment
%
139,653
4,798
3
147,330
75,004
117,897
91,044
90,916
155,427
132,414
134,109
4,290
3,141
5,873
6,109
5,591
15,431
11,146
7,426
3
4
5
7
6
10
8
6
Un-weighted base: 10,157 - Weighted 63:803
Source: Future Skills Wales (2005)
7.3.2
Common skills gaps by sector – Wales
Table 49: Most common types of skills gaps by sector - Wales
Type of skills gap
Most common in
Communication skills
Customer handling skills
Team working
Problem solving skills
Technical and practical skills
General IT user skills
Management skills
Literacy
Using numbers
IT professional skills
Welsh language skills
Work experience
Sales/marketing skills
Time management/keeping
Motivation/behaviour
Transport/communication, Production, Wholesale/Retail
Hotels/Catering, Wholesale/Retail
Hotels/Catering, Other Service, Production
Construction, Hotels/Catering
Production, Other Services, Construction
Public Admin/Education/Health, Banking/Insurance/Other Financial
Services
Production, Banking/Insurance/Other Financial, Hotel/Catering
Public Admin/Education/Health, Construction
Hotels/Catering, Other Services
Public Admin/Education/Health, Banking/Insurance/Other Financial
Services
Public Admin/Education/Health, Hotels/Catering
Public Admin/Education/Health, Banking/Insurance/Other Financial
Services
Transport/Communication
Hotels/Catering
Hotels/Catering
Source: FSW (2005), page 65
7.3.3
Skills gaps affecting business objectives - Wales
A further analysis of the skills gaps showed that just over half of employers at that time
(53 per cent) said that no occupation was more critical in terms of holding back business
objectives. However, the largest percentage of those who reported skills gaps at that
time (14 per cent) stated that sales and customer service was critical in holding back
business objectives.
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Figure 17: Occupations with skills gap effecting business objectives
Don't know
1%
Associate professionals
3%
Machine operatives
3%
Personal services
4%
Elementary
4%
Professionals
5%
Admin
7%
Skilled Trades
7%
Managers
Sales and customer
service
No occupation
9%
14%
53%
0%
7.3.4
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Skills sought in skills gap areas - Wales
52 per cent of employers stated that employees lack other technical or practical skills. A
close examination of these other technical and practical skills by occupation revealed
that over 10 per cent of staff in each occupational group was lacking a number of skills.
It should be noted that some of these skills were generic as technical and practical skill
were defined as ‘skills specific to that job or industry’. For sales and customer service
occupations the following skills were reported as lacking:



sales and marketing (15 per cent)
customer service/handling (14 per cent)
product knowledge (13 per cent)
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©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Administrative
Skilled trades
Personal
services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
operatives
Elementary
Un-weighted base
293
261
Weighted base
1,627 1,571
Product knowledge
7
IT/computer skills
5
3
Technical
1
7
procedures
Trade skills/
1
building/ electrical/
construction
Equipment handling/
2
9
training
Finance /account/
13
6
book keeping
Communication/
28
interpersonal
Further
1
qualifications
Sales / marketing
7
Customer service /
2
1
customer handling
Job specific
3
8
Food/bar/hospitality
2
Training
8
Software /
programming /
3
21
databases
Care mechanic /
1
repair skills
other
16
6
Don’t know / no
13
4
answer
Source: Future Skills Wales (2005)
Associate
Professionals
Professionals
(%)
Managers
Table 50: Other technical and practical skills lacking by occupational group - Wales
230
1,497
14
204
1,354
2
18
602
3,320
6
1
326
2,640
17
825
5,107
13
4
821
4,852
18
-
478
2,906
4
6
3
2
1
15
4
-
1
-
-
26
1
-
-
1
11
-
3
3
4
63
11
11
16
-
-
1
-
-
1
11
-
-
5
1
4
6
2
3
18
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
15
-
-
3
-
3
3
14
1
4
4
11
2
-
1
3
1
5
2
6
4
7
1
1
3
3
12
1
1
10
3
1
-
1
2
-
-
3
-
-
19
-
9
3
5
3
9
4
13
22
11
17
13
9
12
18
Page 76 of 91
8.
Northern Ireland - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Figure 18 below shows that over a quarter of all notified vacancies in 2009 in Northern
Ireland were in sales and customer service occupations (25.3 per cent) with 14,331
vacancies. Over a fifth (20.6%) were in elementary occupations and the lowest number
of vacancies were in the professional occupations (3.7 per cent) and managers and
senior officials occupations (4.4 per cent)71.
Figure 18: Vacancies by occupation – 2009 – N.I
Source: Client Management System, Department for Employment and Learning
8.1
Skills shortages
In 2008 there were 723,100 people employed in Northern Ireland, 17,400 vacancies of
which 5,050 were difficult to fill and 3,100 were skill shortage vacancies.
8.1.1
Vacancies in skills shortages by occupation
As illustrated in the figure below the largest numbers of reported skills shortage
vacancies in Northern Ireland were for sales and customer service with nearly 3,500
vacancies. This was followed by personal services72
71
72
Source: People:skills:jobs; Labour market profile, Northern Ireland, updated January 2011, pg 12
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November 2009 Pg 26
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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8.
Northern Ireland - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
Figure 19: Vacancies in skills shortage areas by occupation, 2008 - Northern Ireland
8.1.2
Vacancies and hard to fill vacancies (HtfVs)
In volume terms, the largest numbers of reported vacancies were for sales and customer
service occupations, with considerable numbers in the personal services, elementary,
administrative and associate professional occupational groups also.
As table 51 below shows fewest vacancies were reported for skilled trades, managers
and machine operatives. The pattern of recruitment difficulties looks slightly different.
The greatest number of Difficult to fill Vacancies ((DtfVs) and SSVs were for personal
service occupations, followed by associate professionals. Sales and customer service
occupations, which accounted for most vacancies, had the smallest number of SSVs as a
percentage of all vacancies. By contrast, skilled trade occupations were among the least
likely locations of vacancies but accounted for one of the largest volumes of SSVs as a
percentage of all vacancies.
Table 51: Distribution of vacancies and density of difficulties by occupation (2008) – N.I.
Share of
DtFVs as %
SSVs as %
all
of all
of all
Share of
Share of
vacancies
all DtFVs
all SSVs
vacancies
vacancies
100
100
100
29
18
Northern Ireland
Managers
4
6
6
38
25
Professionals
7
7
10
29
23
Associate professionals
13
15
17
33
24
Administrative staff
14
10
10
20
12
Skilled trade people
5
9
14
55
51
Personal service
Sales and customer
service staff
16
22
24
40
26
20
16
6
24
5
Machine operatives
4
4
3
23
14
15
11
10
20
12
Elementary staff
Source: NISM08
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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8.
Northern Ireland - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
8.1.3
Skills sought in skill shortage vacancies
Employers with current skill-shortage vacancies or ones over the previous year were
most likely to report technical, practical and job-specific skills as lacking in potential
candidates (52 per cent). For 45 per cent of employers with a skill-shortage vacancy,
communication skills and customer handling skills were each felt to be lacking among
73
applicants.
Employers indicated that technical/practical skills (52 per cent) were the skills most
lacking followed by communication skills (47 per cent), customer handling (39 per cent),
problem solving (38 per cent) and team work (36 per cent)74.
Figure 20: Skills lacking in skill shortage vacancies - NI
IT Professional
14%
General IT
14%
Using numbers
18%
Literacy
21%
Written
communication
30%
Management skills
33%
Team working
36%
Problem-solving
38%
Customer-handing
39%
Oral communication
42%
Any communication
47%
Technical & practical
0%
52%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Percentage
Source: NISM08, page 30
8.1.4
Reasons for recruitment difficulties
When asked for reasons for recruitment difficulties in Northern Ireland, the most
common explanations given by employers were:
Lack of required skills (28 per cent)
Lack of required work experience (25 per cent)
Low number of applicants (23 per cent)
Low number of applicants with required attitude/motivation/personality (22 per
cent)
 Lack of required qualification (19 per cent)
 Not enough people interested in doing the job (18 per cent)75




73
74
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November 2009 Pg 10
NISMS08, page 30
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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8.
Northern Ireland - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
8.1.5
Effects of recruitment difficulties
Of those employers reporting difficult-to-fill vacancies at the time of interview and/or
over the last year, just over half (54 per cent) regarded these vacancies as having
caused difficulties in meeting their customer service objectives.
In addition reasons given for difficulties included:




8.2
increased operating costs (43 per cent)
difficulties in meeting quality standards (37 per cent)
difficulties in introducing new working practices (34 per cent)
delays in developing new products/services (32 per cent)
Skills Gaps
8.2.1 Skills gaps by occupation
In absolute volume terms, levels of skills gaps broadly follow levels of employment, with
the largest employing occupation also having the largest number of workers who are not
proficient. Sales and customer service has the second highest number of percentage
share of skills gap (19 per cent) with elementary skills 5 per cent higher. Sales and
customer service occupations also have the highest skills gaps as a percentage of total
employment at 12 per cent. The highest percentage share of employment involves
administrative and elementary staff however the number of gaps for elementary staff is
approximately twice the size of those in administration.
Table 52: Skills gaps by occupation – Northern Ireland
Number of
% share
% share of
(%)
skills gaps
of skills
employment
(000s)
gap
58,700
100
100
All occupations
Managers and senior
8,000
14
14
officials
2,100
4
7
Professionals
Skills gaps as
% of total
employment
8
8
4
Associate professionals
4,300
7
8
7
Administrative staff
7,100
12
15
7
Skilled trade people
4,800
8
7
10
Personal service
Sales and customer
service staff
3,500
6
9
5
10,900
19
13
12
Machine operatives
Elementary staff
3,900
7
8
7
14,000
24
19
10
Source: NISM08, page 54
As previously found, the most important skills lacking for sales and customer service
occupations in Northern Ireland are customer handling (69 per cent) problem solving (58
per cent). Customer handling skills are the highest skill area lacking for over 50 per cent
of the occupations listed.
75
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November 2009 Pg 29
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8.
Northern Ireland - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
8.2.2 Skills sought in skills gaps areas
Among employers with skill gaps, the most common skills reported as lacking are
generic skills such as problem solving (60 per cent), customer handling (57 per cent),
oral communication (50 per cent) and team working skills (47 per cent). Technical /
practical skills are cited as lacking by half (50 per cent) of employers reporting skill gaps
amongst their workforce76
2008
Managers
Professionals
Associate
Professionals
Administrative
Skilled trades
Personal
services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Machine
operatives
Elementary
Table 53: Skills sought by occupational group – Northern Ireland
50
57
47
50
60
37
43
55
51
58
54
39
30
42
52
59
60
39
56
52
40
59
41
45
56
66
32
36
27
59
54
56
44
59
55
30
69
48
54
58
57
25
47
44
49
40
60
55
50
51
34
31
29
39
41
17
39
28
37
26
36
27
21
21
17
1,186
75
35
29
10
12
298
49
38
27
14
6
71
38
23
31
11
5
120
38
48
34
29
19
328
21
14
9
18
13
176
18
19
12
17
9
107
28
18
10
11
12
299
8
22
11
34
34
115
14
10
6
21
21
292
(%)
Technical and practical
Customer-handling
Team working
Oral communication
Problem solving
Written
communication
Management
General IT user
IT professional
Literacy
Numeracy
Un-weighted numbers
Source: NISM08, page 56
8.2.3 Recruitment difficulties by occupations
Among employers with skill gaps, the most common skills reported as lacking are
generic skills such as:




problem solving (60 per cent)
customer handling (57 per cent)
oral communication (50 per cent)
team working skills (47 per cent)
The generic skills identified are all embedded in customer service skills and as such
represent a high level of customer service skills needed in Northern Ireland.
Of course customer service skills are also complementary to technical / practical skills
which are cited as equally lacking by half (50 per cent) of employers reporting skill gaps
amongst their workforce.
76
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November 2009, Pg 55
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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8.
Northern Ireland - Vacancies, skills shortages and gaps
8.2.4 Reasons for skills gaps
Employers were most likely to attribute skills gaps for sales and customer service staff to
the following:




lack of experience or staff being recently recruited (58 per cent)
insufficient training and development for staff (39 per cent)
training programmes partially completed (44 per cent)
inability of workforce to keep up with pace of change (35 per cent)
Administrativ
e
Skilled
trades
Machine
operatives
Elementary
58
60
73
67
61
59
73
61
64
51
32
46
48
34
49
39
51
44
40
36
41
42
44
54
44
39
39
40
35
19
31
20
21
35
38
34
17
8
298
14
5
71
13
8
120
12
7
328
10
5
176
19
8
107
18
9
299
14
8
115
23
18
292
Personal
services
Sales and
Customer
Service
Associate
Professionals
Lack of experience or
70
staff being recently
recruited
Insufficient training and
46
development for staff
Training programmes
45
only partially completed
Inability of workforce to
33
keep up with change
Recruitment problems
17
High staff turnover
10
Un-weighted numbers 1,186
Source: NISM08, page 58
Professionals
2008
(%)
Managers
Table 54: Reasons for skills gaps by occupational group – Northern Ireland
8.2.4 Effects of skills gaps on employers
Of those employers with skill gaps, nearly half (46 per cent) reported that skill gaps had
led to difficulties in their ability to meet customer service objectives. This is a particular
issue in the Business Services and Hotels & Restaurants sectors, where around three in
five of those with gaps report these skills deficiencies impacting on the customer service
they are able to deliver (60 per cent and 57 per cent respectively).
In terms of Skills Gaps overall, two out of five employers said that their staff needed to
improve their:



customer handling skills
communication skills
technical and practical skills
Over half the difficulties employers experience in Northern Ireland due to skill shortages
and skill gaps is in meeting customer service objectives which demonstrates the
importance of customer service to organisations and customer service skills. These
findings give evidence of the pressing need for customer service qualification and
apprenticeship initiatives in Northern Ireland.
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 82 of 91
9.
Customer service and the UK economy
9.1
Occupational change and employment projections
The projected patterns of occupational change for the next decade are expected to
mirror the changes of the recent past with the same basic forces in operation. Changes
in the industrial structure of employment in favour of the service sector is expected to
favour white collar, non manual occupations, while the continued loss of jobs in
manufacturing and primary industries will result in further job losses for many manual
and blue collar jobs.77
The recession is also having a very high impact on employment levels for all
occupations. However the underlying trends remain the same.
The key features of the effects of this are:





9.1.1
rising employment levels and shares for higher level white collar groups
rapid increases for leisure related occupations
rapid increases for personal service occupations
decline in employment for administration and secretarial occupations
declining employment levels and shares for most blue collar/manual occupations
Sales and customer service occupations UK wide
Sales and customer service occupations represented 8.8 per cent of total employment in
the UK in 2010. It was under-represented relative to the UK average in London (7.3 per
cent), the South East (8 per cent) and the West Midlands (8.5 per cent). The highest
percentages of employment in sales and customer service occupations were in the North
East (10.9 per cent) and Yorkshire and the Humber (10 per cent).
Employment in sales and customer service is projected to decline most in South-East
England (by 14 thousand jobs or -4.2 per cent), and London (by 10 thousand jobs, or -3
per cent). Smaller declines are also projected for the North West (5 thousand), North
East (5 thousand), Scotland (3 thousand) and the West Midlands (3 thousand). The
fastest projected rates of increase are in Wales (9.1 per cent, representing 11 thousand
jobs) and the East Midlands (6.4 per cent, representing 11 thousand jobs). Female
employment is projected to increase overall by 10 thousand, with decline in the South
East (11 thousand, or 5.3 per cent), North West (10 thousand or 4.8 per cent), the
North East (7 thousand or 8.2 per cent) and London (5 thousand or 2.3 per cent).
Male employment is projected to decline by a few thousand in most regions of southern
England and the midlands and to grow slowly in Scotland and northern England.78 The
fastest increase is projected for Wales (13.3 per cent or 11 thousand jobs).
77
78
UKCES: Working futures 2010-2020, Pg 76
UKCES: Working futures 2010-2020, Pg 180
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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9.
Customer service and the UK economy
-14
43
-10
-18
8
355
100
124
82
-66
-45
56
-14
-14
28
250
East of
England
61
74
52
-36
-22
34
10
-5
32
201
South West
60
89
57
-17
-14
23
3
-17
12
197
38
78
45
-19
-27
33
-2
-28
-7
109
36
49
27
-31
-14
32
11
-17
7
101
45
55
37
-25
-28
21
4
-28
-1
79
North West
39
60
34
-35
-36
37
-5
-29
21
87
North East
11
25
9
-17
-7
4
-5
-13
-3
4
482
752
484
-329
-206
283
-8
-170
95
1,383
Wales
18
35
18
-15
7
11
11
-13
-1
71
Scotland
31
58
35
-37
-24
13
-3
-26
3
51
13
24
13
-6
-8
6
1
-4
5
44
544
869
551
-387
-230
313
2
-213
101
1,550
South East
West
Midlands
East
Midlands
Yorks &
the
Humber
England
Northern
Ireland
United
Kingdom
All
-84
Elementary
staff
Administrative
staff
139
Machine
operatives
Associate
professionals
199
Sales and
customer
service
Professionals
92
Personal
service
Managers and
senior officials
London
Skilled
tradespeople
1,000
Table 55: Projected Change in Total Employment by Occupation, 2010 - 2020 - UK
Source: UKCES, Working Futures 2010-2020, Final Report pg. 182
9.2
Expansion and replacement demand
The four components of replacement demands for occupations can be separately
identified as followed:




losses due to retirement from the workforce, which require positive replacement;
losses due to mortality;
net occupational mobility, which, when outward positively adds to replacement
demand; when inward reduces such replacement demand;
geographical mobility, when outward, adds to replacement demand
When total replacement demand as defined here is added to expansion demand, an
estimate of expected net requirements for each occupation is obtained. This measure
provides an indication of the number of newly qualified entrants likely to be required in
each occupational group over a period of time.
The table below has been developed using SOC 2010 Sub Major Codes which enables the
separation of the sales and customer service occupations therefore giving a clearer
indication of the replacement, expansion, and net requirements for these two sectors
over the period 2010-20.
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 84 of 91
9.
Customer service and the UK economy
In particular it is noted that sales occupations shows a negative expansion of employees
at (-5.7 per cent) giving a potential loss of -113 thousand staff. However customer
service occupations shows an expected positive expansion of employees (18.6 per cent)
giving a potential addition of 115 thousand staff. It must recognised that the base
employment level for sales shows more than three times as many employees as in
customer service and, in terms of retirements and mortality, the larger increase for sales
(36.9 per cent) than for customer service (32.8 per cent) shows a 4.1 per cent
difference in expansion which demonstrates slightly more deaths and retirements in
sales than in customer service due to the larger employee base of the sales sector.
The main findings here are that the net requirement for newly qualified entrants into the
customer service occupation is 317,000 whereas, due to the higher levels of
employment, the sales occupation is nearly double this at 622,000
Table 56: Expansion and Replacement Demand by Occupation, 2010-2020 (SOC Major Groups
2010) - UK
UK, All industries
(Results in 000s)
Corporate managers
and directors
Other managers and
proprietors
Science, research,
engineering and
technology
professionals
Health professionals
Teaching and
educational
professionals
Business, media and
public service
professionals
Science, engineering
and technology
associate professionals
Health and social care
associate professionals
Protective service
occupations
Culture, media and
sports occupations
Business and public
service associate
professionals
Administrative
occupations
Secretarial and related
occupations
Skilled agricultural and
related trades
Skilled metal,
electrical and
Base
employment
level (2010)
Expansion
demand
2,015
391
19.4
834
1,000
153
15.3
472
1,593
201
12.6
521
1,296
174
13.4
526
1,364
205
15.0
597
1,591
290
18.2
671
501
25
4.9
169
323
49
15.0
134
458
-10
-2.3
138
569
114
20.0
221
2,074
374
18.0
788
2,738
-80
-2.9
1,204
961
-307
-32.0
491
399
8
1.9
205
1,330
-140
-10.5
496
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
% of
base
Replacement
demands
(retirements
& mortality)
% of
base
41.4
47.2
32.7
40.6
43.7
42.2
33.8
41.5
30.0
38.8
38.0
44.0
51.1
51.5
37.3
Net
requirement
(excluding
occupational
mobility)
% of
base
1,226
60.8
625
62.5
723
45.4
700
54.0
801
58.7
961
60.4
194
38.7
183
56.5
127
27.8
335
58.8
1,162
56.0
1,125
41.1
184
19.2
213
53.4
356
26.8
Page 85 of 91
9.
Customer service and the UK economy
UK, All industries
(Results in 000s)
Base
employment
level (2010)
Expansion
demand
1,152
77
6.7
434
645
-175
-27.1
248
2,094
308
14.7
877
625
5
0.8
267
1,991
-113
-5.7
735
617
115
18.6
202
822
-200
-24.3
311
1,128
-12
-1.1
534
544
12
2.2
200
2,628
89
3.4
1,043
30,458
1,550
5.1
12,319
% of
base
Replacement
demands
(retirements
& mortality)
% of
base
Net
requirement
(excluding
occupational
mobility)
% of
base
electronic trades
Skilled construction
and building trades
Textiles, printing and
other skilled trades
Caring personal
service occupations
Leisure, travel and
related personal
service occupations
Sales occupations
Customer service
occupations
Process, plant and
machine operatives
Transport and mobile
machine drivers and
operatives
Elementary trades and
related occupations
Elementary
administration and
service occupations
All Occupations
37.7
38.4
41.9
42.7
36.9
32.8
37.8
47.4
36.7
39.7
40.4
511
44.3
73
11.3
1,185
56.6
272
43.6
622
31.2
317
51.4
111
13.5
522
46.3
212
38.9
1,132
43.1
13,869
45.5
Source: UKCES, Working Futures 2010-2020, Final Report pg. 98
\\Sapphire\ier\ie\shared\Projects\Working Futures\workbooks\[AllUK.xlsm]Table 5.1, c111
The evidence in this report shows that customer service represents a small but rapidly
growing occupation. Both sales and customer service occupations experienced
employment growth over the past decade, but this is not projected to continue as
pressures to reduce costs and other factors come into play for sales occupations.
Customer service occupations are expected to face more optimistic prospects. Increasing
concentration of businesses, competition from the Internet and technological
developments such as automated checkout are expected to reduce the need for more
traditional sales occupations, while at the same time the demand for more specialist
sales and customer service occupations increases79.
79
Source: UKCES, Working Futures 2010-2020, Final Report pg. 182
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
Page 86 of 91
10. The way forward
In terms of customer service occupations, the volume of customer service roles is likely
to expand and it is highly important to priority industries within the service sector
including retailing, hospitality, tourism and the leisure sectors etc80. Although there is
some uncertainty about the volume of increase due to the effects of recession, evidence
suggests difficulties in filling these roles and the size and number of the sectors involved
is significant. The quality of customer service skills required in sectors such as
hospitality, tourism and leisure, which handle overseas tourists visiting Britain, receives
a red high priority rating, as these skills are critical in generating repeat business and
therefore support economic growth Employability skills in team working, communication,
problem solving and basic literacy and numeracy are critical for frontline staff and in
essence these are the fundamental skills that form the basis of customer service as an
occupation81.
In Skills, Jobs, Growth82 the UKCES identified three principle routes for the
transformation of the employment and skills system to address these root cause issues:



Firstly, we must: “empower customers to be more ambitious and trust them to
drive performance, quality and shape service delivery”.
Secondly, we must measure success in terms of real world outcomes and
continually strive for alignment between the needs of the labour market and the
outputs of the learning market.
Thirdly, we must place greater trust in providers to have the responsibility and
authority to understand and better serve the labour market needs of their
communities, cities and regions directly, with less government intervention,
oversight and bureaucracy.
The aim of the UK Commission’s strategy is to:



Maximise individual motivation and opportunity for skills and sustainable
employment
Increase employer engagement and investment in skills
Build a more strategic, active and labour market responsive employment and
skills system83
The key message highlighted throughout this report is the importance of customer
service to the UK Economy. In particular, the drive to raise levels of customer service is
crucial if the UK is to compete in the global marketplace.
Alongside the economic downturn, the rise in social networking, changes in technology
and increasing customer demands, competition within and beyond the UK is growing
rapidly. Employers are increasingly recognising that high levels of customer service are
the key to their success and survival.
80
UKCES: Skills, for Jobs, Growth: Today and Tomorrow, The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010,
pg 8
81
UKCES: Towards Ambition 2020: Skills, for Jobs, Growth: Today and Tomorrow, The National Strategic
Skills Audit for England 2010, Volume 1: Key findings
82
UKCES Towards Ambition 2020: Skills, Jobs, Growth: Today and Tomorrow: UKCES, Business Plan,
2010/2011, pg 6
83
UKCES: Towards Ambition 2020: Skills, jobs, growth, pg 14
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10. The way forward
Customer service as an occupational area is in its infancy. Less than twenty years ago,
references to customer service were minimal and had no statistical relevance in labour
market, skills or occupational surveys. This has slowly improved and references to
customers, their demands, expectations, loyalty and satisfaction have become central to
the language of employers and Governments. Historically references to customer service
have been a token gesture, but this has now changed.
However, in an increasingly service led economy, customer service skills are still not fully
recognised or understood as skills in their own right. Their ability to be used across all
sectors and most job roles reflect the generic content of the customer service
occupation. Key generic skills such as communication, working with others, problem
solving and customer handling are the foundation of customer service skills and
fundamentally these skills are shaped to focus on a positive and professional interaction
with the customer.
Evidence throughout this report has illustrated the importance of customer service as a
skilled occupation. However, despite increasingly high levels of unemployment,
employers across sectors report high levels of skills shortage and gaps in customer
service and customer handling skills throughout the UK.
In terms of dealing with this dichotomy and to move forward, it is important to raise the
status of customer service occupations and skills by giving them full recognition as
important, high level skills, which are transferable across occupations and can lead to
progression in a customer service career.
To do this more focus should be given to training in customer service both in education
and the workplace. Evidence in this report shows that in England, sales and customer
service employees are more likely to receive on-the-job training than off-the-job training
(27 per cent) compared to other occupational groups84. In Wales, off-the-job training in
management is at 65 per cent whereas in sales and customer service this is 22 per
cent85. In Northern Ireland the situation is similar and off-the-job training accounts for
just 21 per cent of the sales and customer service workforce86. Finally, in Scotland, the
figures are slightly higher with 31 per cent of staff in customer service occupations given
off-the-job training87.
Given the evidence above and the statements from the four UK nations below it is
difficult to reconcile the two extremes. These findings underline the need to raise the
status of customer service standards, qualifications, apprenticeships and skills to a level
where these are taken seriously and given equal status to other skill areas. To do this
more off-the-job training is required to develop the skills needed for working with
customers. These might often be termed as softer skills but, in essence, working with
customers is one of the most difficult and challenging occupations there is.
Finally, preparing those who are unemployed for this occupation (pre-employment
training) and upskilling existing employees (post-employment development) is crucial to
complete the cycle of demand and supply for higher customer service skills. Until these
84
85
86
87
UKCES, The 2009 Report: Ambitions 202, page 78
Future Skills Wales (2005), Pg 79
NISM (2008), Pg 81
Scottish Employer Skills Survey (2010), Pg. 39
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
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10. The way forward
issues are resolved high levels of customer service skills in the workplace are unlikely to
happen and will not meet the demands of the four UK economies as expressed below.
England - “Customer service and employability skills will be of growing importance to
the service sector”. 88
Scotland - “Employers will also look for softer skills that can be crucial to productivity
and success.” In particular the softer skills are identified as customer service skills,
teamwork, communication skills, problem solving ability, analytical skills, enterprise and
entrepreneurial skills, career management, and leadership89.
Wales - “there is a growing occupational and skills demands in customer service. This is
a large occupational area with significant projected growth and is essential to the quality
of service delivery;”90.
Northern Ireland – “generic skills are regarded as at least, if not more, important for
employers as technical or job-specific skills for the 21st century workplace;”91
88
UKCES: Skills, for Jobs, Growth: Today and Tomorrow, The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010,
pg 8
89
Ibid
90
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Key Findings June 2011, page 28
91
Tomorrow’s Skills: Towards a National Skills Strategy:5th Report, Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, 2007
Page 89 of 91
©2012 CFA Customer Service LMI
11. Bibliography
1
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2
DELNI, The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey (2005) Main Report, (2007), p.70 and 82;
UKCES, Ambition (2020), pg 64
Department for Employment and Learning, nidirect.gov.uk, Apprenticeships NI Framework, (2011)
ES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, pg 96, (December 2011)
3
4
5
6
First Release, Further Education, Work-based Learning and Community Learning in Wales Statistics
(2007/08)
Future Skills Scotland, Skills in Scotland 2008 – UKCES, Ambition (2020), pg 64
7
Future Skills Wales (2005)
8
Future Skills Wales, Sector Skills Survey 2005, pg 12, Ambition (2020), pg 64
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Learning and Skills Council, National Employers Skills Survey (2007): Report 2008 pg 17: UKCES
Ambition (2020), Pg 64
National Employer Skills Survey for England (2009): Main report, Evidence Report 23, August (2010)
pg 115
NISMS08, (2008) pg 30
13
Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey (2008), Main Report, November (2009), pg 11
14
15
ONS (2010) Labour Force Survey: EMP: Part Time and Temporary Work by Occupation, (July to Sept
2011)
ONS Vacancies Notified By Occupation (2002-2011), NOMIS 3 February 2012
16
People: skills: jobs; Labour market profile, Northern Ireland, updated (January 2011), pg 12
17
Scottish Government (2011) Skills in Scotland (2010), Social Research
18
19
21
SESS (2010), pg 22
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Apprenticeships, (2010-2011)
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Scotland, (October 2010)
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25
26
27
28
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales, Key Findings, (June 2011), pg 28
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales – 2011, Volume 1: Key Findings,
(June 2011)
UKCES (2011) Skills Almanac (2010), pg 83
UKCES: Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence report 41, (Dec 2011) pg 96
29
SQA Accreditation Qualification Search, Customer Service, (Feb 2011)
30
SQA Accreditation, Quarterly Statistics Report, Raw Data Q2, (July-Sept, 2011)
31
32
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SOC Sub Major Codes, 2010-2020 United Kingdom: (Dec. 2011) pg 104
The Data Service, Apprenticeship Programme Starts by Sector Achievements (2010/11)
33
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34
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November (2009) Pg 26
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36
The Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Main Report, November (2009) Pg 55
37
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2011)
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Needs, (2007)
UKCES (2009) National Employer Skill Survey (2009).
40
UKCES (2009) The 2009 Report: Ambitions (2020), pg 74
41
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 108
42
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 122
11
20
38
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Page 90 of 91
11. Bibliography
43
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 130
44
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 151
45
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 78
46
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 84
47
UKCES (2010) National Employer Survey for England (2009), pg 99
48
UKCES (2011) Skills Almanac (2010), pg 83
49
58
UKCES Towards Ambition 2020: Skills, Jobs, Growth: Today and Tomorrow: UKCES, Business Plan,
(2010/2011), pg 6
UKCES, Skills for Jobs, The National Strategic Skills Audit for Wales, (2011), Key Findings (June 2011),
pg 28
UKCES: Towards Ambition 2020: Skills for Jobs Growth: Today and Tomorrow, The National Strategic
Skills Audit for England (2010), Volume 1: Key findings
UKCES: Skills for Jobs Growth: Today and Tomorrow, The National Strategic Skills Audit for England
(2010), pg 8
UKCES: Towards Ambition (2020): Skills, jobs, growth, pg 14
UKCES: Working Futures (2010-2020), Evidence report 41, (Dec 2011) pg 81
UKCES: Working Futures (2010-2020), Evidence report 41, (Dec 2011) pg 96
UKCES: Working Futures (2010-2020), Evidence report 41, Total Occupational Employment, SOC Sub
Major Codes, 2010-2020 United Kingdom: (Dec. 2012), pg 104,
UKCES: Working futures (2010-2020), Pg 180
59
UKCES: Working futures (2010-2020), Pg 76
60
Welsh Government, First Release, Projected Apprenticeship Framework Success Rates, (2010/2011),
(Dec. 2011)
50
51
52
54
55
56
57
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