Thesis
Skills for growth : understanding skills supply and demand in the Scottish economy
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2022
- Thesis identifier
- T16415
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201472588
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The research aim of this project is to investigate the distribution, severity, and determinants of regional skills mismatch in Scotland, with additional focus on the ability of employers to combat any deficiencies. The narrative of widespread and persistent imbalances in skills supply and demand is a common feature of the Scottish political and industry landscape. Evidence and anecdote point towards deficiencies at the sectoral, firm and job-role level, with presumed knock-on effects hampering firm and aggregate productivity growth. Nonetheless, further scrutiny reveals a host of substantial conceptual, methodological, and empirical weaknesses with prior skills deficiency research, and a holistic, in-depth focus on the Scottish context, with its varied/unique spatial-economic composition, is lacking. To shed light on these issues, this thesis adopts a mixed-methods research approach, incorporating both probit and logistic regression analyses as well as semi-structured interviews with employers, industry-representative bodies and policy makers. Research findings suggest that: (1) little geographic influence can be detected at the statistical level despite the protestations of employers to the contrary; (2) sectoral variation exists, although not all knowledge-intensive sectors suffer equally; (3) there remains substantial confusion among employers as to what precisely is meant by the terms “skill shortages” and “skill gaps”; (4) what many employers mean by “skill shortages” could often be described as generic labour shortages; (5) besides technical skill deficiencies, the problem frequently manifests in what are commonly denoted as “soft” skills or “core” skills; (6) employers’ expectations of the skill levels of new employees, particularly young employees, varies drastically; (7) successful Scottish firms, even internationally successful Scottish firms, still manage to operate in sectors or industries where skill problems have been self-reported by employers; (8) these firms have first-hand experience of skill deficiencies, but place a lot of focus on training and robust internal HR, skills retention and skills diffusion procedures; (9) firms have been reluctant to raise wages and salaries to combat skill shortages. This thesis contributes to the literature by outlining conceptual and methodological weaknesses with much of the existing (influential) research, by exploring the Scottish context in greater detail, and by exploring the phenomena of skill deficiencies at the regional (in-country) level.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Mwaura, Samuel
- Levie, Jonathan
- MacKenzie, Niall
- Resource Type
- Note
- Previously held under moratorium from 9th October 2023 until 26th October 2025.
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2021
Relations
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