According to this year’s annual Business Barometer report published by The Open University (OU) and the British Chambers of Commerce, 73% of UK organisations are currently experiencing skills shortages, which remains one of the major challenges facing employers.

The annual report highlights that despite the ongoing skills shortage, over a half (54%) of organisations don’t have any specific initiatives, skills programmes or workplace adjustments in place for specific talent pools including underrepresented groups such as people with disabilities or workers from diverse ethnicities.

And in blog from the UK Trades Union Council on paid time off to learn Julia Jones and Kevin Rowan say: "The reality is that we have the lowest levels of participation in skills since the government started keeping records. The economy is experiencing the lowest levels of investment in skills since 2010. If employer-led training had remained at 2011 levels, workers would have benefited from an additional 20 million training days."