SKILLS AND THE CARDIFF CITY REGION - Working Links

16 Skills and the Cardiff City RegionCardiff Business Schooland Federation of Small Businesses, Wales172. ECONOMIC BACKGROUND TO THE SKILLS ANALYSIS Cont.2.4 Unemployment2.3.11 The CCR fares less well than Cardiff, having a higher percentage than the UKaverage of the working population without any qualifications. Notwithstandingthe success of Cardiff in having significant numbers of graduates, when theCardiff figures are combined with those of the wider CCR, the region fallsbelow the UK average. The region however does better in terms of tradeapprenticeships where it is close to the UK average and greater than theother selected cities.Table 10. Non-traditional Methods of Learning 2011Source: Annual Population Survey, ONS.%with taughtadult learningaged 16-6928.028.027.030.227.829.128.5local authority/countryBlaenau GwentBridgendCaerphillyCardiffMerthyr TydfilMonmouthshireNewport%of economicallyactive with tradeapprenticeshipsaged 16-694.93.64.32.36.34.53.32.3.12 Another important aspect of skillsdevelopment is the more non-traditionalmethods of learning and informalqualifications and training undertaken byindividuals. Table 10 shows the proportionof people of working age who haveundertaken taught adult learning coursesand trade apprenticeships. Increasing thenumbers of young people accessing tradeapprenticeships has become an importantpolicy objective in Wales.2.3.13 Looking first at adult learning, theproportion of economically active whohave undertaken taught adult learning isgenerally better than the Welsh average,with 7 out of the 10 local authorities in theCCR having a higher percentage of adultlearners than the overall Welsh level of 27.6%.Two of the authorities that have not donewell in qualification terms are neverthelesswell represented in the numbers of adultlearners: in Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent,approximately 28% of the economicallyactive have engaged in taught adult learning.The proportion of the economically activewith trade apprenticeships averages 3.7% forthe UK. For Wales the comparative figure is4.2%. Across the CCR the figure varies froma low of 2.3% in Cardiff to a high of 6.3% inMerthyr. Clearly, these numbers tell us muchabout the historic and current industrialstructures of these areas.2.4.1 In what remains of this section we focus on other labourmarket and economic variables that are relevant to adiscussion of skills and skills development.2.4.2 Table 11 provides a summary of the Jobseeker’sAllowance (JSA) claimant count for the Cardiff City Regionand comparative figures for Wales. The JSA claimant countrecords the number of people claiming JSA and NationalInsurance credits at Jobcentre Plus local offices. To avoiddistortions caused by commuting patterns, the rates hereare the claimant count expressed as a portion of the localresident (not workforce) population of working age.Table 11. JSA Claimants August 2012 CCR Local AuthoritiesNote: Rates for 2011 onwards are calculated using the mid-2010 resident population aged 16-64.4.9 %4.1 %2.6 %2.4.3 There were over 46,000 JSA claimants across the CardiffCity Region in August 2012. Comparison of the claimantrate with figures for Wales as a whole again hints at thepoor economic prospects for some parts of the CCR area.In August 2012 7.6% of the resident population of workingage in Blaenau Gwent were JSA claimants, with a figureof 6.3% in Merthyr. Rates of unemployment are lower inCardiff, Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan (seeFigure 2). It appears that areas closer to the M4 corridorperform better on this measure relative to the Valleyseconomies. Table 11 also reveals the sharp divide betweenclaimant rates for males and females.+50+32+18H +47+36+17H +51+32+17H +49+34+17H3,395 3,626 5,931TOTAL NUMBERBlaenau Gwent2.1 %7.6 %2.7%1.4 %TOTAL NUMBERBridgend4.1 %3.4 %1.8 %TOTAL NUMBERCaerphilly5.2 %3.1 %1.4 %TOTAL NUMBER10,801Cardiff+58+31+11H +52+33+15H +53+34+13H +50+33+17H2,386 1,458 5,192TOTAL NUMBERMerthyr Tydfil6.3 %1.7 %0.9 %TOTAL NUMBERMonmouthshire2.6 %3.8 %1.8 %KEY Total Rate MALE Rate FEMALE RateTOTAL NUMBERNewport5.6 %3.4 %1.7 %TOTAL NUMBER7,637RCT4.6 %5.1 %26.931.027.3RCTThe Vale of Glamorgantorfaen3.54.45.01.1 %+45+34+21H +52+33+15H +48+33+19H +34+44+22H2,807 3,157 46,390TOTAL NUMBER3.5%1.8 %TOTAL NUMBER5.5 %1.6 %TOTAL NUMBER4.8 %2.7 %TOTAL NUMBER78,9784.4 %27.6Wales4.22.4 %The Vale of Glamorgan3.7 %torfaen3.2 %CCR5.6 %Wales