Main navigation

Research and publications

For information on Government Skills research and publications, go to:

• Research
• Skills Strategy publication
  • Skills Strategy evidence base
  • Skills Strategy action plans
• Other publications

Skills Survey 2009

The Skills Survey ran from March to June 2009, with 25 participating departments and the devolved administrations (DAs), including some portfolio agencies. Experian ran the survey on behalf of Government Skills.

Background

Government Skills ran employer and employee surveys in 2007 to identify skills gaps and the available training provision for these skills needs, giving the evidence base for the Skills Strategy, which was launched in April 2008.

Government Skills now needs to assess work under the Skills Strategy in three broad areas:

• the extension of the Professional Skills for Government (PSG) competency framework and its impact on skills levels
• the impact within departments of the new approach to professions
• progress towards Level 2 qualifications across the Civil Service

The Skills Survey 2009 has had senior level support from:

• Permanent Secretaries Management Group (PSMG) and the PSG Programme Board, which both back the need to get an up-to-date picture across the areas above
• the unions, who actively promoted the survey through their union learning representative networks

What do departments get?

To run the Skills Survey, participating departments received technical support from Experian and operational and communications support from Government Skills.

By mid-September 2009, departments will have an extra data source to help them develop their skills policies and assess the PSG competency framework's impact. Departments receive an SPSS dataset and Excel overview of results for their specific department, as well as a Civil Service-wide report. They also have the option to buy additional departmental or agency datasets/reports from Experian.

What does the survey cover?

The survey asked questions about:

• core skills
• professional/job-specific skills
• broader experience
• leadership skills
• learning new skills
• qualifications at Level 2 or above
• barriers to learning
• recruitment and promotion
• respondent demographics: department, grade, diversity

More information

Employers' survey 2007 [PDF, 735kb] [Word, 1mb]

Employee Skills Survey 2007 [PDF, 720kb] [Word, 3mb]

Whitehall and Westminster World advertorial [PDF, 247 kb]

Contact

Stacy Sharman, Senior Research Analyst, 020 7215 1435

---

Publication formats

The publications on this website are available in HTML, PDF and Word formats. For information on specialised readers for these formats, go to Document readers.