Labour Market Research Report

By Doctor Claire Haven and Dr Eleri Jones

This section of the website provides access to an assessment of the labour market and skills needs of the tourism and related sectors in Wales

This project, carried out between November 2003 and March 2004, provides an assessment of the labour market and skills needs of the tourism and related sectors in Wales. Project objectives were to:

• Undertake comprehensive desk research in order to identify and use all available data to construct a picture of the labour market and skills needs across the tourism sector in Wales.
• Present an overview of the research needs of the tourism sector.
• Provide an assessment of the labour market and skills needs of the tourism and related sectors which includes a detailed analysis of the results on a regional and all-Wales basis.
• Propose a common model/methodology for the future

Individual interviews with employers and key stakeholders; a web-based employer’s survey and desk research were used to compile the information and the project covered the following industries: hotels; restaurants; pubs, bars and nightclubs; contract food service providers; membership clubs; events; gambling; travel services; tourist services; visitor attractions; youth hostels; holiday parks; self-catering accommodation and hospitality services.

The very factors that make tourism beneficial to the economy also make it very difficult to measure and the report outlines the difficulties in compiling a complete picture of total employment and learning participation in the tourism and related sectors in Wales. Key findings include:

• The need to develop a methodology for the maintenance of labour market and skills needs data as a management tool to inform public sector interventions and continue to enhance the quality of the Welsh tourism product.
• The dominance of micro-businesses, many of whom are not well equipped with practical business planning and marketing skills to compete successfully and who need support to develop profitable businesses and emphasise the inherent role of trained staff. It is important to encourage them to see the bigger picture - that the industry in Wales needs quality staff to achieve a good reputation and deliver a quality product, but that quality requires investment.
• A mismatch between learning providers and the requirements of employers.
• Negative industry image, which affects recruitment into the industry.
• Hard-to-fill vacancies amongst chefs, cleaning and waiting staff, which corresponds with the number of officially notified job vacancies. Persistent hard-to-fill vacancies impact upon business performance, service quality and ultimately visitor experience.
• Skills gaps amongst existing employees in relation to: customer service skills: including communication; generic skills and attributes: including initiative and personal presentation and occupational-specific skills, e.g. chef and silver service skills.
• A consensus on the need to upgrade skills; improve professionalism amongst employers and employees and nurture a training culture as an integral part of overall business performance.

Use one of the links below to download the element of the report that you would like to view (WARNING - some of these files are extrmemly large)

Executive Summary - English (Word Document 529Kb)
Executive Summary - English (PDF Document 153Kb)

Executive Summary - Welsh (Word Document 542Kb)
Executive Summary - Welsh (PDF Document 162Kb)

Full Report text - English (Word Document 3.58MB)
Full Report text - English (PDF Document 608Kb)

Appendeces - English (Word Document 4.41MB)
Appendeces - English (PDF Document 572Kb)