{"id":8405,"date":"2025-07-07T12:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2025-07-08T09:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T08:46:59","slug":"get-workplace-ready-and-future-proof-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8405","title":{"rendered":"Get workplace ready and future-proof your career"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Open University\u2019s latest research reveals that 54% of UK organisations have a skills shortage, and 71% of young people say they have been considering their career prospects based on which skills are in-demand in the UK.<\/p>\n

Using Labour Market Information<\/a> like this helps you make informed decisions, plan for the future, and explore career paths and sectors. Take a look at key findings from the OU\u2019s research and how you can use it to inform your career:<\/p>\n

Workplace readiness<\/h2>\n

Only 55% of young people feel prepared to enter the workplace after graduation, and 35% of employers also felt that younger generations lacked work readiness. Reflect on how you feel with our 3-minute careers check-in<\/a> and learn how to make a good first impression when starting a new role<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4 in-demand skills<\/h2>\n

67% of young people know they need to improve certain skills to feel fully work-ready. The top 4 most cited skills were:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Time management (26%)<\/li>\n
  2. Communication (23%)<\/li>\n
  3. Leadership (23%)<\/li>\n
  4. Problem-solving (20%)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Communication and problem-solving skills are built into all OU study, which also proves your time management abilities to employers. 74% of employers also said that young workers lack interpersonal skills, something built into collaborative activities within OU modules.<\/p>\n

    Learn about analysing your own skills<\/a> or audit your skills<\/a>. Discover more skills to future-proof your career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Tech skills on the rise<\/h2>\n

    Over 1 in 5 employers are concerned about keeping up with technological advancements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Learn How to get the best out of GenAI<\/a> with our webinar from Microsoft and attend one of our practical live workshops<\/a> on using GenAI in career planning.<\/p>\n

    Planning for the future<\/h2>\n

    Keeping labour market trends<\/a> in mind can help inform your career plans and decisions. 32% of employers think the skills shortage will get worse. Causes include Brexit, more people reaching retirement age, the mental health crisis, and the number of \u2018economically inactive\u2019 people:<\/p>\n

    Mental health<\/h3>\n

    Each year, 18 million workdays are lost to poor mental health. Learn how to ask for reasonable adjustments and where to find support with our Mental health and your career<\/a> webinar. Hear what employers have to say in our panel on having open conversations about Mental health in the workplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Caring responsibilities<\/h3>\n

    1 in 5 working age Brits are not in paid employment or seeking it. There are many reasons for this, but a big one is people with full-time caring responsibilities. See our webinar on Managing your career and study alongside caring<\/a> or our Careers for carers employer panel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    See our webinar on Planning a return to work after an employment break<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \"A<\/p>\n

    The OU Business Barometer<\/h2>\n

    The 2025 Business Barometer<\/a> surveyed 2000 business leaders and 1,000 Gen Z adults. The report highlights ongoing skills shortages and offers five recommendations for UK organisations to address them.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Open University\u2019s latest research reveals that 54% of UK organisations have a skills shortage, and 71% of young people say they have been considering their career prospects based on which skills are in-demand in the UK. Using Labour Market Information like this helps you make informed decisions, plan for the future, and explore career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,90,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-planning","category-carers","category-lmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8420,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions\/8420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}