Acua boss unsurprised by findings of skills survey

ACUA managing director Jeannine Mortlock says she is “disappointed but not surprised” by new figures which reveal that 1.5m employees do not have the right skills to do their job.

Business development organisation Acua, whose parent organisation is Coventry University, has worked with more than 100 blue chip companies across the UK to help develop a talent pool of nearly 10,000 employees since its launch in 2008.

But Mortlock believes there is still plenty of work to be done to increase skill levels amongst the UK workforce.

She said: “The UKCES survey has identified the UK still has a long way to go to address, and fill, a major skills gap which has been developing, and to drive the economy back to where we all want it to be.

“I’m saddened but not surprised by some of the results, and the way to close this gap is through hard work and investment in developing our people.

“It is people that make a business successful after all and developing skills and attracting and retaining talent is as important as ever in these difficult economic times.”

Mortlock is urging companies to investigate the funding that is available to firms investing in skills development programmes.