A report by City & Guilds has found that the pandemic’s negative effect on the job market has unexpectedly leant itself to a significant number of people wanting to change their careers.
A third (34%) of Britons said they would like to make a career change, though just 16% of respondents said they know where their skills would be useful in another career.
HR therefore has a vital role to play in providing support to new hires switching industries, says City and Guilds Group CEO Kirstie Donnelly.
Speaking to HR magazine, Donnelly said: “In response to the current climate, businesses are increasingly open to recruiting talent with professional experience from different industries and actually recognising the potential of individuals.
“The benefits of which create a more diverse and richer talent pool to recruit from, but employers need to do more than simply have a flexible hiring process in place.”
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She suggested HR consider investing in training and coaching to support people from different backgrounds transition into a new career.
This would be vital, the report found, as the UK workforce also lacks confidence and the ability to recognise the potential of transferable skills.
A third (32%) of those surveyed did not know where else their current skill set might be useful and, when asked to consider changing careers to move into new industries, a third (34%) were concerned about starting over again.
A fifth (21%) said they lacked knowledge of other sectors, and around the same number (19%) expressed an overall lack of confidence.
The report also found that almost two thirds (65%) of Britain’s working population expect the job market to be worse in 2021 than it was in 2020.