Scottish Employer Skills Survey 2020

Appendix A – Definitions

Vacancy density

The number of vacancies as a proportion of all employment.

Hard-to-fill vacancies

Vacancies that employers struggle to fill.

Skill-shortage vacancy (SSV)

A specific type of hard-to-fil vacancy that occurs when an employer cannot find applicants with the required skills, qualification, or experience to do a job.

SSV density

The number of SSVs as a proportion of all vacancies.

Skills gaps

Skills gaps exists when an employer thinks a worker does not have enough skills to perform their job with full proficiency. Skill gaps apply to existing employees.

Skills gaps density

The number of employees that lack full proficiency as a proportion of all employment.

Off-the-job training

Training that takes place away from the employee's immediate work location / position. It can be elsewhere on the employer's premises or off the premises as long as it is funded and arranged by the employer.

On-the-job training

Training that the employer funds or arranges that takes place where the employee normally works (for example, at their desk). This would be activities recognised as training by staff rather than the sort of learning by experience which could take place all the time.

Training equilibrium

Employers that are in 'training equilibrium' had no desire to undertake more training than they had delivered in the previous 12 months (or in the case of non-training employers, no desire for any training).

Results for training employers are derived from a survey question which explicitly asked if they would like to have provided more training than they were able to over the past 12 months.

Results for non-training providing establishments have been determined from their reasons for not training, rather than a direct question. Those answering that they had not provided any training because it was not considered to be a priority for their establishment, because all their staff were fully proficient or they had no need for training were regarded as being in training equilibrium and having no perceived need to undertake training. Those not giving any of these reasons were classified as wanting to have undertaken training (i.e. not in training equilibrium). Additionally, training employers that answered 'don't know' when asked if they would have liked to train more were classified as not being in training equilibrium.

Regional Outcome Agreement (ROA) definitions

Throughout the report we breakdown results by region using ROA categories. Table 3 shows the constituent local authorities for each ROA region category. Note, some local authorities appear in more than one ROA; for instance, East Renfrewshire is included both in Glasgow region and the West region.