Open data sharing to plug the skills information gap

A new technology initiative looks set to open up access to skills data, says SkillsPlanner project director Rebecca Lovelace.

Rebecca Lovelace

The recently published National Infrastructure Plan for Skills has raised fears about the industry’s ability to deliver major projects. Infrastructure UK’s report, published in September, forecast a demand for more than 250,000 new construction workers as well as over 150,000 engineering construction workers by 2020, with a shortfall of nearly 100,000 additional workers by the end of the decade.

This is not just about new young recruits. Critically, Infrastructure UK identified that 250,000 of our existing workforce will need to retrain and upskill over the next 10 years. Increased use of BIM, offsite fabrication and onsite automation are just three areas where we are already demanding new skills, and as our working lives grow longer, further areas will no doubt grow in importance.

Moreover, Infrastructure UK highlighted “a lack of detail on demand and supply – particularly within regions – coupled with fragmented approaches to skills planning and high levels of bespoke training limit the effectiveness and efficiency of labour market mobility.” The report continued: “This makes it harder for skilled workers to move easily between sectors and projects, exacerbating key skills shortages for key projects and programmes.”

During the Conservative Party conference, chancellor George Osborne announced plans to invest in the UK’s infrastructure, as well as appointing Labour’s Lord Adonis chair of the new National Infrastructure Commission.

Lower profile, but perhaps no less important, the same week saw the launch of SkillsPlanner, an initiative that could help support the government’s ambition to be “the builders” by resolving construction skills shortages.

Awarded £827,000 funding from Innovate UK, the SkillsPlanner Linked Open Data platform will enable different groups in the industry – including contractors, clients, further education colleges and training ”brokerage” organisations – to share data on skills supply and demand. This will facilitate collaborative planning, training and brokerage to meet the industry’s needs.

A two-year research and development project will focus on London, which needs an estimated 180,000 new skilled entrants to deliver projects in the capital and the south-east by 2019. Ethos, the lead body, will work with technology lead Seme4 and project participants including Tideway, Crossrail and supply chains, local authorities including Westminster, Camden and Islington, training providers and industry bodies. Participants will share skills supply and demand data related initially to major projects and rail, but also to smaller businesses.

By drawing together this diverse group, we are aiming to overcome the fragmented structure of the sector. Our aim is to make skills supply and demand data visible, via a live, accessible and user-friendly platform that will enable collaborative action in order to better inform the provision of training that meets the needs of industry.

Tailored to industry needs

SkillsPlanner will use Linked Open Data technology to provide both a focused understanding and a broad overview of what, where and when skills are needed, and becoming available. Linked Open Data lets us access large volumes of anonymised data from disparate sources that can be aggregated, summarised, and presented via a web interface tailored to industry needs. We believe that this approach will result in skills data that is far more visible and far more connected.

We are testing this through four projects, focusing on industry, training, councils and brokerage. The industry group, for example, involves Tideway and Crossrail, with nine main contractors from their supply chains, plus Morgan Sindall, Network Rail, HS2 and the London Construction Training Group, coming together to share and standardise skills demand data, and to advise on development of the platform.

The lessons and data from this group will be shared with: the training group, which is focused on skills supply data from FE colleges, universities and private training providers; the brokerage group, which is seeking to add value and develop new collaborative and data-led employment and skills activities; and the councils group, which will be using planning obligations to connect industry, training and brokerage through data.

Our ambition is that:

• skills providers can define existing provision and develop demand-led training;
• businesses can benefit from more sustainable procurement of local labour, reduced resource and HR costs;
• local authorities can collaborate on the design and delivery of local skills provision;
• local job brokerage initiatives can operate more efficiently and effectively;
• individuals and organisations can learn about trends in future skills needs.

In other words, we hope to provide real visibility as to the training on offer — who does what, when and where — and the training that is needed by employers. Construction employers can more easily understand what the local skills base looks like, and training providers will have greater opportunity to react to industry demand. Councils can continue to mandate the use of local labour through planning obligations, but with a far greater awareness of the reality of local residents having the skills that industry needs, and an improved opportunity to collaborate with providers to develop these skills.

There is an opportunity to join up the dots between the many Department for Work & Pensions and council-led job brokerage initiatives, and having data to underpin existing activities means SkillsPlanner can bring real value to what already exists, or work collaboratively to develop something new. Maybe it is time for a pan-London industry-backed job brokerage powered by data?

We are also focusing on education and future skills, so are collaborating with Class of Your Own and BIM2050, with a view to formalising new research groups over the coming months.

SkillsPlanner is hugely ambitious and challenging, but the sheer number of collaborators joining us is testament to the need for knowledge and action.

Rebecca Lovelace is project director of SkillsPlanner