DAVID HARBOURNE, chief executive of North Yorkshire TEC reports on the battle strategy to breach and beat the skills shortage.

Earlier this year, the National Skills Task Force presented its final report to the Government. Several issues were highlighted, including shortages of IT specialists, weak skills in maths (affecting many of us, if truth be told!), and the number of adults who have few or no qualifications.

In an era of change and automation, there is less and less demand for unskilled people, and most new jobs call for significant levels of technical, supervisory or customer service skills. By 2010, between 65 per cent and 70 per cent of all new jobs will require advanced craft, supervisory or technical skills, described as "level 3" in the language of National Vocational Qualifications. Yet only 41 per cent of all UK 25-28 year olds currently have level 3 qualifications - far fewer than in Germany.

Moving up a level, there is already a definite shortage of people with level 4 skills. This level is equivalent to HND and is pretty stretching: many people with HNDs go on to study for a full university degree.

Unfortunately, long-established qualifications such as HNCs and HNDs have declined in popularity in recent years, partly because more young people go straight for a full degree.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that few degree programmes cover the same range of practical skills as an HND. Employers are therefore recruiting more graduates, only to find that they lack important technical and commercial skills. The National Skills Task Force described this as "the most significant skills shortage challenge we currently face in the UK".

I am in absolutely no doubt that York and North Yorkshire are affected by this shortage. I hear it from employers time after time. So what can be done?

First, a lot of effort and money has been devoted to developing high quality Modern Apprenticeship programmes. North Yorkshire TEC is proud to have helped literally thousands of individuals to complete their apprenticeships locally.

Looking slightly further ahead, a new two-year Foundation Degree is being planned which will provide the practical skills and the background knowledge employers are crying out for in many specialist fields.

However, further action will still be needed to raise the skills of people already in work. The best employers provide excellent opportunities for learning but others, particularly smaller firms, find it very difficult.

One way forward will be to help businesses set up learning networks, for example around business parks and industrial estates or through sectoral or supply chain clusters. These might operate through local learning centres where learning is delivered in manageable bite-sized chunks.

The TEC has already supported experiments in this area, and we'd be delighted to hear from more businesses interested in working collaboratively to develop training programmes which meet their particular needs. Just give TEC Directory a call on 01904 692777 and together, we'll find out what can be done to combat local skill shortages. And if you have strong views on skill shortages and what we should do about them, please don't hesitate to drop me a line: I'll be pleased to hear from you.