Survey examines skills and rewards

Citation

(1999), "Survey examines skills and rewards", Education + Training, Vol. 41 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.1999.00441iab.006

Survey examines skills and rewards

Keywords Information technology, Skills, Workplace learning

Around two-thirds of the UK workforce is now using computers in some form, compared with 40 per cent in 1986. The growth in computer usage is strongly associated with an increase in job skills since the 1980s, with the rise being particularly marked in women's jobs. These are among the findings of research conducted by a team led by Professor Francis Green, of Kent University, as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Learning Society Programme. Computers and equipment controlled by computers are also being used at increasing levels of complexity as more jobs incorporate the new technology. Computer skills are highly valued in the labour market. Even the fairly modest skill of working a word processor commands a 13 per cent pay premium over a job that does not require that skill, after taking all other factors such as education and experience into account.

The project developed a new method of measuring skills used in the workplace, which was based on adapting job analysis as used by occupational psychologists advising employers. Skill changes could be addressed without relying on qualifications held or on occupation as the measure of skill. The survey of almost 2,500 jobs revealed that skills in use have increased - in 1997, for instance, 24 per cent of jobs needed a qualification above A-level standard, against 20 per cent in 1986 - and that jobs requiring training of less than three months have fallen (50 per cent, down from 66 per cent) while jobs needing more than two years' training have risen (29 per cent against 22 per cent a decade earlier). Women's jobs showed the most pronounced increase in skills over the period, from 51 per cent to 65 per cent of jobs which need some qualification. For men's jobs, the increase was marginal, from 69 per cent to 71 per cent.

Skills which are linked to higher pay include some which have come to the fore in the 1990s as characteristic of modern work organization. As well as computer skills, they include professional communication (making presentations, for instance), problem-solving and, to a lesser extent, verbal skills. But numerical skills are only more highly rewarded when they are linked with computer use, while client-communication skills and listening skills do not command more money. People least likely to be in a position to improve their skills are part-timers, the self-employed, the over-50s and those still in lower-status occupations. Pay is better in jobs which require a long period of learning and specify higher qualifications, and which use skills which are not specific to a particular employer. As for the individual who wants to go on learning, the authors say, he/she should choose a "modern" organization which uses Investors in People and quality circles, for instance, which encourage employees to be involved.