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The Business Barometer podcast series

Business Barometer Podcast Series

There is an ongoing skills crisis in the UK – three in four employers struggle to access the skills they need, according to last year’s Open University (OU) Business Barometer report, conducted in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). These skills shortages are having a huge impact on organisations, affecting their ability to recruit, grow, innovate and succeed.

The OU recently ran a series of podcasts, discussing issues arising out of the Business Barometer findings and what employers can and are doing to address skills gaps. Baroness Martha Lane Fox, CBE, Chancellor of the OU and President of the BCC, hosted the podcasts, each of which featured a guest speaker and covered a different area of skills development. 

Skills: a structural issue

In the first podcast of the series, How SMEs can solve skills shortages, Martha and Anthony Impey, MBE and Chief Executive at Be the Business, talked about the scale of the problem facing UK SMEs.

“The thing that I have really been surprised by in my travels around the country is the unbelievable uniformity of crisis that people tell me about the skills they are lacking in their businesses or can’t find. This is a mammoth issue for the country and one of the things that we’ve got to work out how to unlock in order to really grow the economy.

Baroness Martha Lane Fox, CBE
Chancellor of The Open University and President of the British Chambers of Commerce

The subsequent podcasts focused on different skills challenges:

  • The importance of financial wellbeing in the workplace, with guest speaker Carla Hoppe, Founder and CEO at Wealthbrite
  • Local skills for local people, with guest speaker Alwen Williams, Portfolio Director at Ambition North Wales
  • The role of career changers, with guest speaker Bryan Redpath, Director of Rugby at London Scottish and Director of Partnerships & Strategic Sales at Jackson Swiss Partners
  • Solving the people and work challenge, with guest speakers Shevaun Haviland, Director General at the BCC, and Jane Gratton, Deputy Director of Public Policy at the BCC

Watch podcast series

Episode 1: How SMEs can solve skills challenges – with Anthony Impey, MBE

SMEs need to be more proactive about addressing skills challenges if they are to recruit and retain the talent they need in order to succeed. This is one of the key messages from The Open University’s (OU) recent podcast How SMEs can solve skills challenges, the first in a series discussing findings from the Business Barometer report. This first podcast features Baroness Martha Lane Fox, CBE, Chancellor at the OU and President at the British Chambers of Commerce and Anthony Impey MBE, Chief Executive at Be the Business.

Episode 2: The importance of financial wellbeing in the workplace – with Carla Hoppe

Financial stress is one of the biggest drivers of mental health issues in the UK, according to Carla Hoppe, CEO and Founder of Wealthbrite, an organisation that provides financial and commercial acumen training for early careers talent to accelerate workplace readiness and on-the-job performance.

Carla was speaking to Martha Lane Fox, CBE, Chancellor of The Open University (OU) and President of the British Chambers of Commerce, in the second podcast in the OU’s recent series discussing business and skills and the findings of the latest Business Barometer report.

Episode 3: Local skills for local people – with Alwen Williams

Much like the rest of the UK, Wales has a shortage of skills. Three quarters of Welsh businesses say they are suffering a skills crisis, according to the latest Business Barometer report, conducted by The Open University (OU) in conjunction with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

In this podcast, the third in the OU’s series on the UK skills landscape, Alwen Williams, Portfolio Director at Ambition North Wales, talks to Martha Lane Fox, CBE, Chancellor at the OU and President at the BCC. They discuss plans to develop skills and careers for local people, with a strong focus on sustainability, climate change and the needs of future generations in North Wales.

Episode 4: The role of career changers – with Bryan Redpath

Bryan Redpath is well placed to talk about career changes in the workplace and the importance of lifelong learning, having had several careers himself. He started his working life as a joiner after leaving school, before becoming a professional rugby player, a coach and then transitioning into his current roles as Director of Rugby at London Scottish and Director of Partnerships & Strategic Sales at foreign exchange company Jackson Swiss Partners.

In this fourth podcast of The Open University’s (OU) series on business and skills, Bryan talks to Martha Lane Fox, CBE, Chancellor of the OU and President of the BCC, about his personal experience of moving from one career to another. He shares the advice he would give other people transitioning into a new field and why employers can benefit from thinking more openly about career changers.

Episode 5: Solving the people and work challenge – with Shevaun Haviland and Jane Gratton

Skills shortages are pervasive. That’s the message from the fifth and final podcast in the Open University’s (OU) series on business and skills, drawing on the findings of the latest Business Barometer report, conducted by the OU in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

In this fifth podcast, Martha Lane Fox, CBE, Chancellor of the OU and President of the BCC talks to her two guests - Shevaun Haviland, Director General at the BCC and Jane Gratton, Deputy Director of Public Policy at the BCC – about talent, skills shortages and the importance of lifelong learning.

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