Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) collects data about the skills of the workforce of firms in England. A separate, but similar survey is conducted in Scotland (the Scottish Employer Skills Survey, UK Data Archive SN 6857). The English survey first started in 1999 and was known as the Employers Skills Survey and was also conducted in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, it became known as NESS and there were surveys also in 2004, 2005 and 2007. This Secure Access study includes the data for 1999, 2001, 2007 and 2009 only. End User Licence (EUL) versions of the data are available for 1999 (SN 4774) and 2001 (SN 4731). Special Licence Access versions of the data are available for 2003 (SN 7998), 2004 (SN 7999), 2005 (SN 8000). The survey was established because of concerns about apparent skills-shortages and gaps in workforce knowledge that were affecting firm performance in the UK. In particular, the Government was interested in whether these skills-shortages were dampening economic performance in the UK, and whether policy interventions were required to address these shortages. The aim of NESS is therefore to provide Government with robust and reliable information from employers about skills deficiencies and workforce development to serve as a common basis to develop policy and assess the impact of skills initiatives. The survey coverage falls into three major categories:hard-to-fill vacanciesskills gapsworkforce training and developmentIn addition, an annex survey was conducted, which collected data from firms about the cost of providing training (for example, fees paid to external training providers for staff). These firm-level data can be combined with other sources of business micro-data, because they have been successfully linked to the Inter-departmental Business Register (IDBR). This allows observations to be combined with, for example, productivity data from the Annual Respondents Database (SN 6644) or the Annual Business Survey (SN 7451), amongst others. This allows researchers to investigate the effects that skills shortages have on other areas of businesses (such as productivity, innovation, research and development etc). Geographical references: postcodes The 1999 and 2001 data contain real postcodes. The Investment in Training data for 2007 and 2009 also contain real postcodes. The postcodes available for 2007 and 2009 in the main and occupational data files are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes are not available. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. In the dataset, the variable of the replacement postcode is 'new_PC'. End User Licence (EUL) versions: EUL versions of the 1999 and 2001 surveys are available from the Archive under SN 4774 and 4731 respectively. The only geographic variable they include is Government Office Region and they do not include the variables mentioned in Annex 1 of the 1999 and 2002 User Guides. Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the Employers Skills Survey will need to fulfil additional requirements, commencing with the completion of extra application forms to demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the extra, more detailed variables, in order to obtain permission to use that version. Secure Access data users must also complete face-to-face training and agree to the Secure Access User Agreement and Licence Compliance Policy (see 'Access' section below). Therefore, users are encouraged to download and inspect the EUL version of the data prior to ordering the Secure Access. A later survey, the Employer Skills Survey (ESS), covering the whole of the UK, is also held under standard End User Licence conditions at the Archive under SNs 7430 and 7484 for 2011 and 2013, respectively. A Secure Access version of the ESS 2011 is available under SN 7745. The UK Commission of Employment and Skills also conducts the Employer Perspectives Survey (UKCEPS) series (held at the Archive under SN 33466), which began in 2010. The UKCEPS provides a comprehensive examination of employer perspectives on key aspects of the employment, skills and business support systems in the UK. Note on Fourth Edition: For the fourth edition (February 2018), the Investment in Training survey data files for 2007 and 2009 have been updated (previously called Cost of Training). The revised data files include real postcodes. A variable catalogue covering the Investment in Training survey has also been added.
Main Topics:
The National Employer Skills Survey has been designed specifically to provide robust measures, by sector and geography, of:the recruitment and quality of young people recruited straight from education (school, college or higher education)how many employers have difficulty finding suitably skilled recruits to fill vacant positionshow many vacancies remain unfilled because of skill shortages among applicants in each of the major occupational categories; and which skills are in short supply.how many employers face skills deficiencies among their workforce; how many (and which) employees are affected; and the nature of the skills challenges they face.whether employers expect any of their employees to need to acquire new skills or knowledge (‘upskill’) over the next 12 months and the specific skills that particular occupations need improving or updating.the extent to which employers develop the skills and assess the skills needs of their workforce; and the extent to which such activities are a feature of wider strategic planning.employer use of (and satisfaction with) FE colleges, Higher Education Institutions and other providers of training and workforce development.employer expenditure on training and development (these data are gained through a follow-up survey with a subset of employers who participated in the initial NESS interview).employer awareness, current and future usage of and attitudes towards Government training initiativesThe survey was designed to incorporate employers across all sectors of business activity in England. ‘Employers’ were defined as establishments (individual sites) rather than enterprises. Some enterprises may therefore be represented in the survey by more than one of their sites. The sample for the survey was drawn from Experian’s National Business Database.
One-stage stratified or systematic random sample
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
