13.12.2023
Welcome to the HR Bulletin, a quarterly snapshot by level, company size, sector and region to help you understand the recruitment and retention market, with:
- The latest pay settlement data.
- Recruitment attempts
- Recruitment successes.
- Barriers to recruitment.
In addition, for each quarter of 2023, we will examine a key HR topic in focus which, for Q4, is the recently announced Advanced British Standard – the planned new qualification for 16-18 year-olds.
The Government plans to begin consulting stakeholders on the design of the standard before the end of 2023. Thus, the limited content is perhaps reflected in our early polling, which suggests that a majority of respondents (39.2%) don’t know whether to agree or disagree with the proposals.
Despite the uncertainty, a significant number of firms do foresee some potential benefits and outcomes of the change. 62% believe that it will allow a better balance of academic knowledge and technical skills to be taught, while 38% believe that it will simplify the education choices on offer for school leavers and lead to a ‘parity of esteem’ between academic and technical routes into further education.