British Talent Attraction Index

2 Identify your area’s particular strengths
On the focus pages throughout this report, you will see that
we have included data on the top industry clusters in the
area, including the LQ figure, which is a metric denoting the
comparative advantage an area has in that industry over other
regions (see the Terminology and Methodology page for
further details). By identifying the industries that really make
your area unique, you will be far better placed to understand
which employers you should be talking to, which sectors
should be prioritised in your planning, and what the most
pressing needs are in your community.
4 Use the data to work with local education
providers
In an ideal world, the supply of people with certain skills
would equal the demand for people with those skills. In reality,
however, this often doesn’t happen, and we are left with
what is known as the skills gap. One of the main causes of
this is the sheer challenge of employers communicating to
education providers what it is they need. Yet if you have used
data to better understand what it is employers in your area
are demanding, you then have a powerful way of starting a
conversation with local education providers about what these
skills needs are, and how they can help fill the gaps through
their training, apprenticeships and upskilling.
3 Understand local industry workforce
requirements
Having identified the industrial mix in your community, and
particularly its niche sectors, you can now work to understand
their workforce requirements. Emsi data not only enables you
to focus on occupations in your area – including current job
numbers, job growth, and projected growth – but it can also
do this for each industry. For instance, you might find that your
area has a particularly significant logistics and ecommerce
sector. But what are its skills needs over the coming years?
Our data can help you identify this, giving you the lowdown
on projected growth for each occupation category, so that
you can better understand and work with employers in that
industry to ensure that there is a ready supply of talent.
5 Use the data to promote your area
The more you know about the sectors and skills that define
your area, the better placed you will be to promote it as a
place to live and work. In our focus on Coventry, for instance,
we saw that the Civil Engineering industry cluster has grown
by 1,800 jobs (107%) between 2012 and 2017. Our projections
show that growth in the cluster is set to continue over the next
few years, albeit at the slower rate of 8.3%. This gives a great
opportunity for the Local Authority and the LEP to promote
the area, for example to universities that specialise in the kinds
of occupations that are employed in the sector, which include
Design and development engineers, Production managers and
directors in manufacturing, and Chartered surveyors.
BRITISH TALENT ATTRACTION INDEX 21