Close your skills gap, train leaders from within

Dr Haider Ali: Close your skills gap, train from within.

Following the release of the 2024 Business Barometer report, Dr Haider Ali, Director of Microcredentials and Short Courses at The Open University’s Faculty of Business and Law, explains how the OU can help businesses fill skills gaps by developing internal talent.

The workforce is changing, and to stay competitive, business leaders need employees with the right skills. The latest Business Barometer report, published by The Open University in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), highlights that a skills shortage remains a pressing issue for UK organisations. The report reveals that almost two thirds (62%) of organisations across the UK are experiencing skills gaps, and 68% say these shortages are increasing workloads on other staff as well as negatively impacting wellbeing, output, profitability, and growth.

These skills shortages span across various sectors, including engineering, technical fields, administrative and managerial positions, sales and marketing, healthcare and social care, skilled trades, manufacturing, and IT. The report provides an analysis of these shortages, the associated impacts, and challenges. It also looks at how employers are responding through business planning and employee learning and development.

To bridge the skills gap, three-quarters of the organisations surveyed intend to use training over the next twelve months. Many prefer mentoring and coaching, and shorter and less formal courses to upskill employees. Encouragingly, 86% of businesses already using apprenticeships say they plan to maintain or increase the number of apprentices they will hire.

Understanding management and leadership skills gaps

A significant issue contributing to skills gaps in organisations is the ‘accidental manager’. Employees are often promoted into managerial positions based on their technical expertise or tenure, without proper consideration of their leadership abilities. This leads to a situation where managers may lack the necessary training and experience to effectively lead their teams which can lead to decreased employee morale, higher turnover rates, and reduced productivity.

Managers who have acquired budgeting skills can plan for future expenses and avoid overspending. Proper budgeting enables managers to allocate resources effectively, support strategic planning, and measure performance against financial goals.

As the Business Barometer highlights, coaching and mentoring is vital in many organisations to get the best out of staff. Managers with appropriate coaching skills can guide and mentor employees, helping them enhance their skills, set and achieve goals, and overcome challenges. This leads to increased employee effectiveness, higher productivity, and reduced turnover, as talented staff are more likely to stay with the organisation.

Analytical thinking skills enable managers to break down complex issues into manageable parts, identify the root causes of problems, and evaluate potential solutions. This helps managers make more rational decisions with improved accuracy and less bias.

How The Open University can help

Depending on your business needs, there’s a role for degrees, apprenticeships, and shorter courses to close skills gaps. For example, we offer higher and degree apprenticeships in areas such as healthcare, policing, social work, digital, systems thinking, management, and leadership. Training costs can be funded through the Apprenticeship Levy or part-funded through government funding.

For organisations with limited time for training or looking to incorporate training alongside running a business, our microcredentials and CPD courses offer a way for individuals to quickly gain new skills or enhance existing ones in just a few weeks. These industry-endorsed online courses are especially useful where training budget, training time and capacity are issues within the business. Course subjects range from digital skills like digital marketing, digital transformation, or Python programming to business skills such as project management, people management, and finance.

Upskill your team in a few weeks

Our business and management CPD courses are a quick and effective way to build new skills within your team. Our budgeting course is popular with managers from non-financial backgrounds who need to engage with financial decisions. Our coaching courses provide managers with the skills to constructively enhance the capabilities of their staff. Our Analytical thinking for problem solving course is in high demand as managers recognise the importance of problem-solving capabilities.

Microcredentials, which are longer and more comprehensive than CPD courses, cover subjects such as financial accounting with a strong practical focus. The learning style of these courses is direct and practical, aimed at rapidly acquiring necessary skills. Our project management microcredential has been extremely popular since its launch three years ago. On this course, managers acquire the skills necessary to deploy specific project management tools effectively.

By investing in employee development, organisations can not only create a competent and confident leadership team but also foster a positive work environment that drives organisational success. Companies like Uber Eats, for example, provide Open University courses to their couriers, demonstrating the value of learning opportunities as both a benefit for attracting employees and a tool for nurturing talent.

Given the current job market in the UK, we believe these perks [microcredentials and CPD courses] will provide the differentiating factor for couriers to work and collaborate with Uber Eats.
Sami Dabbour
Senior Strategy and Operations Manager at Uber

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