Addressing the skills deficit

By Evarist Bartolo. Companies are often faced with recruitment difficulties. The most common source for recruitment is by word of mouth followed by notification to Jobsplus (formerly the ETC) and social media. Out of all vacancies that are hard to fill, clerical support workers (22.2% of all hard-to-fill vacancies) and service and sales workers (15.3%) account for the highest absolute number of hard-to-fill vacancies. A recent survey shows that the primary reason for hard-to-fill vacancies was the lack of applicants with the required skills (56.2%) as well as a lack of personality or attitude. Employers give considerable importance to oral communication skills; team working skills; English language and customer handling skills. More...