TBC response to reports 2016
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Transcript of TBC response to reports 2016
Right time, right place and right people
The Business Cafe response to two Government Supported Reports February 2016
The following is a set of responses to the reports written in the early 2015 and the way in which The Business Cafe has been trailblazing these solutions for SMEs and their need for close networks, digital skills, financial skills and a place to meet that is accessible. In October 2013, Penny Power OBE wrote a thought leading proposal on the future of SME Support and Communities and since then has gathered an impressive Board in order to open a network of Business Cafe’s. The Business Cafe was incorporated and Trademarked in 2014 and will open its doors in 2016. The two core aspects to The Business Cafe are Community and the provision of accessible and personally delivered Digital Skills to the local SME business community. We are been delighted by the two reports released as they confirm our vision and our desires. We seek to work with local FE Colleges and we seek to empower and grow small business. The extracts we have pulled from these reports highlight the independent views of others and further confirm that we are bringing to market a pioneering’s concept that is needed and desired by the major stakeholders that we have been communicating with for many years.
Report One The Skills Funding Agency Review of Publically Funded Digital Qualifications – February
2016 Chair of the Review -‐ Liz Williams -‐Director of Tech Literacy and Education Programmes at BT Ministerial Support -‐ Ed Vaizey-‐ Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy and Nick Boles Minister of State for Skills
Link to report https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/499031/Review_of_Publicly_Funded_Digital_Skills_Qualifications_2016_FINAL.pdf
Forward
“ We know digital skills are required across the economy by individuals and small businesses looking to make the most of the Internet, through to specialist digital roles across all sectors.
To achieve these ambitions, the digital skills offer must be built on two key components – relevance and flexibility. The pace of technological change means that skills requirements will continue to evolve, and provision must meet these changing needs. To stay relevant, standards must reflect what industry needs and shape the provision that sits underneath them. Delivery of skills provision must also be flexible to ensure that it meets changing local and national priorities.”
Where you see quote marks, these are extracts from the report.
The report specifies 3 categories of Digital Skills. It is the role of The Business cafe to fill the ‘General” one. Digital skills required for all job roles across the economy. The Business cafe is there to serve the business population, although we have muted a CSR plan to open the cafe at weekends for the general public and the Digital Inclusion needs “This is not just about supplying skills for the digital workforce, but ensuring that every individual, regardless of background, experience or aspiration, has the opportunity to develop appropriate
digital skills”.
The need for digital skills in the workforce “Digitisation presents real opportunities for UK growth and competitiveness. By adopting accelerating technologies (including data analytics, mobile technology and social media), companies can perform 10 times better than their peers (Exponential Organisations, Salim Ismail, 2014). In 2014, an estimated 1.4 million people worked in digital roles.
Research from the Tech Partnership predicts that by 2023 the economy will require one million new people to fill digital roles and it is vital the future workforce is equipped to fill them”.
“The need for digital skills will continue to increase in future. In London, 84% of businesses state that the skills of their employees will need to change over the next 10 years, identifying ‘digital know-‐how’ as a top new skill. A recent Deloitte report estimates that 35% of all jobs are likely to become automated in the next 20 years, with 90% of all jobs requiring some level of digital skills. Digital skills have a key role to play in preparing people for new job roles that will emerge alongside changing technologies, as well as future proofing the workforce as existing job roles change”.
Digital skills shortages
Understanding the benefits of technology and being able to use it, requires every individual to have digital skills. It is therefore notable that digital skills shortages are widely reported across the economy. An estimated 23% of UK adults do not have basic digital skills, and the CBI Gateway to Growth report notes that 61% of businesses surveyed report weaknesses in IT skills competencies, a 4% increase from the last survey in 2009. The UKCES found that “the greatest recruitment challenges are currently experienced by those seeking workers with digital skills” and that “there are particular concerns about the ability of the education system to supply the quantity and quality of workers needed for digital roles.”
The UKCES 2013 Employer Perception Survey (EPS) found that 16% of all vacancies were due to a lack of basic digital skills.
Basic digital skills qualifications
“Feedback indicates that the current basic digital skills qualifications are out of date, as they are based on standards and criteria that are more than five years old. Although a large number of qualifications are available, most enrolments are on Functional Skills or ITQs.
These qualifications are also predominantly based on out-‐of-‐date standards; most on ITQs that are derived from the NOS that are over five years old.
Most enrolments (62%) are on qualifications where productivity software, such as spreadsheets and word processing, are either the exclusive content, or form a large majority of mandatory content. Just under a third (32%) of enrolments are on broad ITQs. These cover how to use a computer, online skills, digital media, or other areas such as imaging software.
Part 4: Recommendations
Who and how: The government should consider which organisation, or consortium of organisations, would be most appropriate to carry out this work. This should reflect the central importance of employer collaboration in designing and developing standards. It should also take into account activity to create a discrete number of occupational routes, which has arisen from the reform of technical and professional education.
Providing the general skills the workforce need
It is predicted that within 20 years, 90% of jobs will require digital skills. The data indicates that the publicly funded provision does not emphasise these skills sufficiently, which will support digital transformation and productivity.
Report Two – February 2016
Self Employment Review commission by Rt. Hon David Cameron _ UK Prime Minister
By Julie Deane OBE CEO ad Founder Cambridge Satchel Company https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/501735
/ind-‐16-‐2-‐self-‐employment-‐review.pdf
In this excellent report Julie Deane OBE highlights a number of key themes that we have identified in our strategy for The Business Cafe since it’s inception in 2013. It is a joy to see this enormous workforce being given credibility and attention. We, at The Business Cafe, honour Julie Deane for her commitment and empathy. Over 900 responses were gathered.
Prime Minister,
I am honoured to have been chosen by you to conduct this review of self-‐employment in the UK. With record numbers (currently 4.6m) representing 15% of the UK workforce, I have been struck by the diversity of this group. Throughout the process I have been keen to engage with every part of this sector – not just tech start-‐ups but farmers, construction workers, taxi and cab drivers, hairdressers and artists.
Julie Dean OBE
Key themes covered aspects such as financial support in the form of self employed mortgages and maternity pay, while we celebrate these considerations, we are focused on the themes around skills and isolation and the impact that technology can have on this sector.
Evidence has been gathered statistically of this growing sector of the business population. Now at 4.6 million, an increase of 800,000 since 2008. This is a diverse group, covering a wide range of occupations across many sectors and industries. Julie notes that 60% of the rise we are witnessing in the last 5 years has come from the higher skilled, professional and associate professional jobs. It is stated that nearly 43% of the self-‐employed are aged 50+ and only 11% under 30. This validates our belief that this sector requires empathetic and face2face support in providing them with digital skills. They did not learn their trade in a digital era. Women feature in the report as a growing trend of self-‐employed, with 1.49 self employed women, representing a third of the total self-‐employed population. Over half of the growth we have seen since 2009 are from women. Through the work we (The Business Cafe) carried out in 2015 for The Government Equalities Office we witnessed how women have been missing out on digital skills with many women returning to the workplace and finding it very different from the world they left before they had children. Digital skills were key to the success of the program we ran in Surrey, helping 100 ladies back into work through the provision of community, confidence and skills. www.surreywise.co.uk The list below from 1-‐15 are direct extracts that validate the core of The Business Cafe’s drivers and the reasons we are executing such a pioneering concept for local small business. Recommendations of the report – the following are exact extracts from the report 1. It is important that the advice and support available is as accessible as possible During the review many self-‐employed talked about their concerns around a lack of knowledge regarding finance, cash flow, bookkeeping and taxation. These are skills that would benefit many adults regardless of their employment status and yet they are still lacking from our Curriculum. 2. Shared work spaces are becoming more important. The location and availability of such spaces needs to be better communicated so as to increase awareness. Increased visibility of, and accessibility to, shared work spaces needs to be improved. Consideration should be given to incorporating such a space in local libraries and community center’s bringing commercial activity and life to underutilized resources already in place.
3. Technology has revolutionised the way we work and offers great opportunities for the self-‐employed. Trade and professional organisations must take responsibility for keeping members up to date with technological advances. The self-‐employed, if wanting to grow their businesses, need to use whichever networks and forums they feel most comfortable with to keep their knowledge base current. I would advocate combining disparate age groups and underutilized existing community resources to facilitate this exchange. 4. I am keen to see more private sector organisations start such initiatives, which I believe are mutually beneficial. Private sector corporations can reap the benefits from providing 5. The support that Government gives should be objective, without commercial bias. The importance of this should not be underestimated. This is why it is important that that advice and support is as accessible as possible. It is not the role of government to dictate how to start a business, nor how to run a business. 6. Although the majority of people whom I spoke to would not go back to employment, when asked what they missed about being an employee, the most popular responses were colleagues (25%); infrastructure (14%), regular income (12%), job security (10%) and benefits – including sick pay, holiday pay and an employee pension (9%). 7. Unsurprisingly, given the diversity in business types and methods of working, the ways in which people intended to grow were very varied. However, there were some broad themes – by far the most popular method (29%) was seeking to take on more work and clients, by developing existing partnerships and improving and increasing their reputation. 15% of people sought to grow by diversifying their existing goods and services; and 11% sought to grow through increased marketing and communication. 8. It was identified that being self-‐employed can be a solitary and often-‐lonely occupation with 25% of respondents to our online survey stating the thing they missed most about being an employee was their colleagues. This becomes less of an issue for those who decide to take on an employee but less than a fifth of say they plan to take on more or any employees in the next year. 9. Of great concern to me was the fact that of those who were planning to expand and grow their business, only 7% planned to do so through innovation and new ideas, and even fewer (4%) highlighted exporting as a method they were considering using to grow their business. 10. According to BIS research, 46% of people said that they had worked with other self-‐ employed people on the same job or project as part of team whilst 64% of people had referred people on or shared clients for different jobs. 11. Never before has there been more flexibility in working arrangements, be they informal networks or hubs. Often the fastest growing businesses are those which are most inventive in this area. 12. However over half (55%) of the people who answered my online survey had not heard of them (shared workspaces), or had not used them. A quarter of people (25%) said that they would be encouraged to use a work hub if they were available in a location that was more accessible to them and the third that had used them found it to be a positive experience. 13. Internet -‐ A surprisingly small percentage of people -‐ only 78 out of the 697 who answered the question (11%) – said they used it for marketing activity. This indicates a lack of awareness of the commercial opportunities afforded by social media which is a fantastically low cost and effective way to communicate with customers outside the immediate locality.
14. There is a tremendous opportunity for a hook up of two disparate age groups; the younger, more tech savvy generation with digital and social media skills and the 55+ age group who we have identified as being a key part of the self-‐employed population 15. Problems with limited broadband connection and poor Internet speed were raised (9%). It is important that the UK has the latest and most up to date digital infrastructure in order to be competitive in the new global market place. This should be available regardless of geographic location.
The Response from The Business Cafe CEO and Founder, Penny Power OBE These reports are both gratifying and motivating and further motivates the Board of The Business Cafe to bring to market a new infrastructure that provides the social workspace that combats many of the challenges of being self employed, together with the enormous opportunities for collaboration, knowledge share and friendship. Our strategy of bringing the online and the offline together, while also creating an environment for the young and the old to share skills is unique and pioneering. Under pinning our strategy is the belief that Government should not build this infrastructure and the impetus and funding should come from businesses that stand to gain from the growth and stability of this increasing workforce. We are on course to create a groundbreaking business community and look forward to welcoming the partners that see this need and support its growth. Penny Power OBE CEO and Founder The Business Cafe 19th February 2016
Summary from Julie Deane OBE
There can be no question that technology has revolutionised the way we work and offers great opportunity for the self-‐employed. To capitalise on this, trade and professional organisations must take responsibility for keeping their members up to date with technological advances and the self-‐employed, if wanting to grow their businesses, need to use whichever networks and forums they feel most comfortable with to keep their knowledge base current. I would advocate combining disparate age groups and underutilized existing community resources to facilitate this exchange.