In a nutshell
Automation and digitisation are changing the nature of jobs and the skills required to do them. Changes to the labour market are felt strongly in rural areas where there is more reliance on manufacturing and carbon intensive industries, and a lower share of services in their economy. People must be able to retrain throughout their lives but rural and town communities have challenges in accessing retraining. What research is underway to understand how rural communities can have the same access to retraining to adapt to digitalisation and net zero?
A skills based economic recovery — but will it work for everyone?
COVID-19 has had unprecedented impacts on employment in the UK despite wage subsidies or furlough — including the largest increase in claims for out of work benefits in April 2020 and the largest number of redundancies in a quarter from July- September 2020. The most severe impacts are being felt in hospitality, retail and administration, and those recently out of work are more likely to be looking in the same sector rather than retraining. There has been an uptick in training as restrictions were imposed with a fourfold increase in searches for online learning in the UK. The UK Government launched an online Skills Toolkit in April 2020 to provide free access to high quality digital and numeracy courses to help users build up their skills, progress in work and boost their job prospects. The UK Government launched a Skills Recovery Plan in Autumn 2020 to increase training available to school leavers and adults including an entitlement to free intermediary training for adults and regional bootcamps in priority areas.
Building back better — tackling regional economic inequality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
The regional impacts of COVID-19 have been more mixed to date. Rural areas have benefited from lower rates of transmission and increased demand with relocation of urban populations but are vulnerable to economic shock from more dependency on sectors, particularly hospitality and retail, and thinner labour markets for those made redundant to find new opportunities. Looking ahead, this is a potential moment for a rural renaissance as well as the risk of decarbonisation in rural and towns communities. The normalisation of remote working across sectors and the relocation of families and firms beyond cities, creates an opportunity for greater economic dynamism in rural and town areas. The impact of interventions to move UK emissions to net zero by 2048 on industrial clusters risks reducing high skill employment that supports wider towns and rural local economies.
The UK Government has committed to a ‘green economic recovery’ and the Prime Minister of the UK has set 10 priorities across offshore wind, hydrogen, nuclear, electric vehicles, public transport, aerospace and maritime, homes, carbon capture, nature and innovation. The UK Government has established a Green Jobs taskforce to respond to immediate skills needs for roles created by economic stimulus in offshore wind and home retrofitting, develop a plan for the UK’s long term skills and needs, and to support workers in high carbon transitioning sectors such as oil and gas to retrain. There has been limited evidence on how government and employers can grow sectors in different types of communities such as rural areas, towns and cities.
Can remote learning tackle skills gaps in rural and town communities in the UK?
Around the world, governments and organisations have worked around the world to adapt and meet the changing needs in response to COVID-19. This highlighted innovation in skills provision — for example in Estonia where the digitisation of the school curriculum in 2015 resulted in a smooth transition to online learning — and the importance of wider infrastructure — for example in South Korea, where near universal 4G and wide 5G broadband access, ensured universal access to online learning for children, young adult and adult learners. What research is underway to understand whether online learning is started to address the gap in skills provision in rural and town areas?
Compared to other countries, there is less difference between rural, semi rural areas, towns and cities in terms of density and dispersion in the UK. I believe policy makers can neglect to consider how user needs differ in places, aggravated by limited regional government. I am researching how we can design training that better meets the needs of rural and towns areas, empowering communities to adapt to changes in the labour market and ensure a just transition to net zero.
Let me know your thoughts on how we can build back better and enable a renaissance of rural and town communities.
What is the impact of the shift of online learning and can this tackle existing skills gaps?
Do you think that policy makers neglect different user needs in different communities and what examples are there of services and interventions designed with rural communities at their heart?
