Employees are over-qualified for their jobs as skills training fails to meet workforce needs, research shows.

Among workers aged between 20 and 60, almost three quarters (73%) hold qualifications of a higher standard than that required for their job, the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) reports.

This is a leap from 29% in 1986, and a third (33%) in 1992. The DFES claims this shows that skills are being developed but not necessarily used.

The National Employer Training Programmes (NETP) urges employers to bring workers up to the standard of Level 2 National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) to improve the economy, yet industries such as catering do not require this skill type.

Forty per cent of companies report difficulties in recruiting staff with the right skills set.

Professor Mike Campbell, Director of Strategy and Research at the Sector Skills Development Agency, noted that this skills problem required the assistance of employers.

“Skills are only good if they are the right ones – and that can only be ensured by employers being intimately involved in their demand, development and delivery,” he said.