Education, Skills and the Labour Market
Our Schools, Colleges and Universities
·
Shropshire
’s standards in educational achievement is excellent. GCSE (and equivalent) results in
Shropshire
are consistently above the national average.
·
In 2008 68% of pupils achieved five or more A* - C grades at GCSE compared to 62% throughout
England
.
·
Shropshire
has a number of private schools with day and boarding facilities, including
Shrewsbury
School
,
Ellesmere
College
, Prestfelde, Packwood Haugh, Oswestry and
Morton
Hall
Schools
.
·
Shropshire
is also in close proximity to
Staffordshire
University
and
Keele
University
– both located North East of Shropshire and the
University
of
Wolverhampton
located South East of Shropshire.
·
Further Education colleges include
Shrewsbury
Sixth
Form
College
, Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology and
Concord
College
at Acton Burnell.
·
Higher Education facilities within the county include:
- the
University
of
Wolverhampton
at the Priorslee campus in
Telford
-
Harper
Adams
Agricultural
College
- Walford and
North
Shropshire
College
Our Skills and Qualifications
-
The proportion of the
Shropshire
working age population with NVQ 4 and above qualifications rose sharply in 2007 from 26.8% in 2006 to 32.3%. This compares favourably with 24.6% of the
West Midlands
population and 28.5% of the
UK
population.
-
Shropshire
supports a higher proportion of people in management and professional occupations (15.5% and 13.7% respectively) that either the
West Midlands
or the
UK
, and the importance of these occupations within the county is growing.
-
Highest growth has, however, been achieved within the skilled trades occupations, with the proportion of all employees working in this sector rising from 13.8% in 2006 to 15.6% in 2007.
Our Labour Market
-
Of the 13,067 workplaces in
Shropshire
in 2006, 86.7% employ 10 or fewer. These micro businesses employ 29.7% of the
Shropshire
workforce.
-
Although just 13.3% of
Shropshire
businesses employ 10 or more (the equivalent of 1,731 businesses), these employ 70.3% of the total
Shropshire
workforce.
-
58.6% of the total
Shropshire
population is of working age, compared to 61.0% of the
West Midlands
population and 62.2% of the total
UK
population.
-
In
Shropshire
, the working age population has increased by 4.8% since 1996 (the equivalent of an additional 7,800 people), compared with growth of 2.4% in the
West Midlands
and 7.6% within the
UK
.
-
The proportion of the working age population in employment rose to 78.2% in
Shropshire
in 2007, with the numbers of employees and self-employment numbers both rising.
-
The highest proportion of jobs are in the service sector – 80.1%. This is higher than for the
West Midlands
(78.9%) but lower than the national figure (82.9%). Compared with the region,
Shropshire
supports a lower proportion of manufacturing jobs, but a higher proportion of jobs in the construction sector.
-
In 2006, there were 107,300 employee jobs in
Shropshire
of which 64.8% were full-time.
Average Earnings
-
Average
Shropshire
workplace earnings are £400.20 per week which is 6.9% lower than
West Midlands
workplace earnings of £430.00 per week. Workers in
Shropshire
based businesses are paid 12.4% less that the
UK
average of £456.70 per week.
-
The number of
Shropshire
residents in employment (136,200 in 2007) exceeds the number of
Shropshire
based jobs, contributing to the relatively high levels of out-commuting. In terms of geographical area, a 40 minute travel to work includes most of
Shropshire
,
Telford
and parts of the
West Midlands
conurbation. Latest census data (2001) showed that there were 33,011 out-commuters compared with 20,786 who were travelling into the county to work.
-
Census data also reveals that 76% of
Shropshire
residents worked with the county, with 83% of all
Shropshire
jobs filled by
Shropshire
residents.