Skill shortages and the re-training needs of the unemployed: a local labour market study

Abstract

This article is based on the findings of a programme of research funded by the (then) Manpower Services Commission entitled Evaluating the retraining and skill updating needs of the unemployed.¹ The project followed a programme of research on the West Midlands economy based on key industrial sectors (e.g. fasteners, foundries, pumps, valves and compressors, locks, keys etc., engineer’s tools and gauges). The West Midlands is more dependent on manufacturing employment than any other region of the U.K. and its employment was therefore more disastrously affected by the shake-out of labour from manufacturing in 1979–1981. Many of the metal-based industries rely heavily on the motor vehicle industry, which had been severely affected in the early eighties by a loss of sales, redundancies and plant closures. A recurring theme of the sector study work had been to identify both a relatively slow rate of technological progress and very little formal training.² The closures and redundancies had also eroded the traditional skills base of much of West Midlands industries, so that when orders began to re-emerge the process of informal skills transmission had been severely disrupted.