New employer report: In from the cold – is your organisation in a higher education cold spot?

How low local participation in higher education could be constraining your access to skills – and what employers can do about it.

Access to skills should not depend on postcode. Yet across the UK, many employers are operating in higher education ‘cold spots’ – places where relatively few local people progress into higher education.

This employer-facing report explores a critical question:

Could being based in a higher education cold spot be holding back your ability to build skills locally?

Drawing on insights from 350+ employers located in cold spot areas, and the views of a number of skills experts, the report looks at how low higher education participation affects recruitment, retention, diversity and growth – and how employers can respond by working differently with higher and further education providers.

Get exclusive access to the report

What you’ll learn

What higher education cold spots are – and where they exist across the UK
How being in a cold spot affects employers’ access to skills, growth opportunities and productivity
Why competition for graduate and higher-level skills is particularly intense in these areas
Which critical skills (including digital, AI and professional services) are most in short supply
How employers are responding – and where opportunities are being missed
Practical ways employers can build skills locally, even where HE participation is low
Case studies of best practice local skills partnership-working

In some parts of the UK, access to skills is a daily challenge for employers, as talent is everywhere but opportunity is not.
Professor Mark Durkin
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Partnerships and Enterprise, The Open University

Get exclusive access to the report

The numbers

35%

of employers in cold spot locations have turned down work or investment due to skills shortages

55%

face competition for talent from employers in other regions

78%

say employees are more likely to train if flexible learning options are available

73%

would be interested in higher education delivered through local FE colleges

Why this matters for employers

If you struggle to recruit, retain or develop the skills you need locally, geography and local social factors might be important factors – but there are solutions.

The report shows how employers in cold spots can:

Unlock hidden talent within their existing workforce
Use flexible, distance and work-based learning to widen access to higher-level skills
Partner with FE and HE providers to create local pathways to degree-level education
Strengthen local skills pipelines by diversifying the talent pool.

Find out whether your organisation is operating in a higher education cold spot – and what you can do about it.

Download report

About the author

Sally Percy is a leadership and management journalist with extensive experience writing about work, skills, education and organisational change. She is a former editor of Management Today and People Management, and regularly contributes to national and professional publications. Sally specialises in translating complex research into practical insight for business leaders and employers.