The skills gap is one of the five challenges to scaling outlined by Sherry Coutu in the Scale-Up Report.
Skilled candidates are essential for rapidly scaling businesses however the skills gap is widely cited as the most significant challenge to growth for the majority of businesses in the UK, including scale-up businesses.
As the Scale-Up Report notes, there is a lack of hard skill-building programmes for businesses in periods of rapid growth, particularly when there are changes strategically, operationally and organisationally.
The impact of this is significant; an interview with the CEO of job-tracking company Adzuna noted that the skills gap is forecast to deepen in the future, which could further increase the 990,000 vacant positions in the UK (July 2014).
61 per cent of the scale-up leaders surveyed by Sherry Coutu said they would grow faster if they could hire from established businesses more easily.
To target this key gap to scaling up, Barclays is investigating the skills gap in Birmingham, Leeds and Southampton. Speakers at the different events will include Lyn Harding, Founder of Sweet Dreamers, Cris Beswick from Future Shapers, Jodie Cook from JC Social Media and Deb Hepburn from RBH Creative.