Clashing institutional interests in skills between government and industry: An analysis of demand for technical and soft skills of graduates in the UK

- Government and industry interests clash on future employees' skills demand.
- UK employers push for upskilling and the government for lower skills training.
- Technological knowledge is a critical asset of UK's National Innovation System.
- The pressure of institutional clashes pushes universities to create generalists.
- Policy makers need to fine-tune their policies to advance skills leading to innovation.

Technological knowledge and skills provide a basis for developing national competitiveness. However, there is an emerging clash of interests in the UK labour market between employers and policy makers. The former requests highly skilled workers who often jealously train in house for their specific operations while the latter aims to reduce unemployment through the expansion of vocational training to lower skilled workers. Universities need to find their strategic position in the knowledge economy characterised by radical technological change and shifting occupational structure by meeting the future skills demand while balancing between the clashing institutional interests. This study analyses 510 job advertisements in the supply chain management area, using a combination of OMDS and HCA techniques. The advertisements are categorised by means of six dimensions according to the skills, duties and job type. This study analyses not only employers' needs in skill types according to job roles but also emerging institutional clashes in the job market and their implications for skills training policy and curriculum development.