This report seeks to identify existing information on skills gaps in key sustainable communities professions, explore the national picture and assess the scope, focus and methodologies used by others, drawing conclusions on the current picture and projections for the future.

It also sets out to make recommendations on a methodology that could be used across regions and by all relevant partners/stakeholders to ensure ongoing capture of key skills gaps and needs in the field of sustainable communities.

The study focuses on seven key sustainable communities groupings:

In December 2006, York Consulting Limited was commissioned by the Academy for Sustainable Communities to undertake a Gap Analysis for sustainable communities professionals.

The project was designed to be a forerunner of a second piece of research to be undertaken on behalf of the ASC to design and implement sample skills audits of sustainable communities professionals, including forecasting to understand trends for the future.

A search was undertaken of publicly available information and data on skills gaps, covering quantitative labour market data and qualitative information on the key issues facing the occupations around labour market flows and generic skills.

This was supplemented by a series of telephone consultations with a range of professional bodies, skills organisations, and regional agencies in order both to ensure all available information had been identified, and to provide a richer qualitative picture of skills gap challenges facing the occupations.

Academy for Sustainable Communities
Judith Stead (Learning and Research Officer), tel. +44(0)113 3944581

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York Consulting Ltd

research

Urban Policy

Housing, Urban environment