Breakdown in categories (“j” category/secondment/other) of the 350 staff recruited from outside the Island by the finance sector in 2006. How many of the 145 graduate recruits employed were returning locals and schol leaver recruitment

2.3   Deputy G.P. Southern of the Chief Minister regarding the breakdown by category of staff recruited from outside the Island by the finance sector in 2006:

Will the Chief Minister or his Deputy advise Members of the breakdown in categories ("j" category/secondment/other) of the 350 staff recruited from outside the Island by the finance sector in 2006. Of the 145 graduate recruits employed can he state how many were returning locals and advise what measures he and his ministers will take to raise the proportion of school leavers in the finance sector recruitment from 75 in 2006, which was less than 9 per cent?

Senator T.A. Le Sueur ( Deputy Chief Minister - Rapporteur):

This is a question which would have been better framed as a written question since Members who are interested are going to have to absorb several numbers in a short time, and indeed my answer, short as it is, is rather long and you may have to cut me off half way through. But the Deputy 's question arises from incidental information collated from the survey of financial institutions. That survey is used to monitor trends in the recruitment of staff and firms are not requested to report the residential status of staff. It is not possible therefore from that survey to provide the breakdown required by the Deputy . Furthermore, the 350 staff quoted as recruited outside the Island relates to total recruitment over a year and includes replacement of staff as well as new posts. In dealing with this question it is far more important to consider the information contained in the labour market report on the manpower survey published earlier this year. This provides the appropriate and definitive information on the residential status of additional staff. I remind Members that the increase of 810 head count recorded by the sector in 2006 comprised 130 "j" categories, 70 residentially non-qualified and significantly 610 locally residentially qualified people, and employers continue to seek locally qualified staff whenever possible. But for the reasons given above the survey does not identify how many of the graduate recruits employed were local. The Deputy 's question also seems to imply that the finance industry only attracts a small number of

school leavers. I should remind the Deputy that the majority of our school leavers go on to seek further education, either here or on the mainland, and that the finance industry is now demanding higher skill levels of its recruits. Nevertheless, the number of school leavers entering the finance sector has increased in recent times and a range of initiatives have been developed to support this, including 6th Forms offering courses directly related to employment in the finance industry, an initiative from the Jersey Finance Limited to raise the profile of the finance industry among school and university students, and collaboration to the finance industry generally aimed at a locally delivered foundation degree in financial services. Perhaps the most significant measure taken by the Council of Ministers is the commitment to the creation of a training and skills executive, which will bring together functions of 3 States' departments in order to provide a focus on developing and uplifting the skills of the local workforce, not just in the finance sector, but throughout the economy.

1. Deputy P.V.F. Le Claire:

Some interesting numbers. The manpower return is obviously something where we should be focussing our attentions in relation to see whether or not the efforts and the money we put into educating people in this Island, the offspring of the locals, whether they be from Scotland, England,

Jersey or wherever, can I ask then out of the numbers the Minister has given us, 810 was the

headcount from the manpower return in relation to those recruited to the finance sector last year,

610 were locally qualified. Out of those 610 locally qualified, which I believe means they have been here 5 years, how many were locally educated?

Senator T.A. Le Sueur :

That information is not obtainable from the manpower survey, and I cannot give the Deputy , at this stage, any likelihood that I would be able to answer his question in the future either, so I apologise but that is not within the information we have.

2. Deputy G.P. Southern :

Will the Minister take any steps to ensure that this survey reflects more useful information when it

is conducted in the future, rather than the present state?

Senator T.A. Le Sueur :

Surveys are carried out for particular purposes and a survey of financial institutions is a voluntary survey of firms who have been looking at their economic prospects and their profitability. It is not a manpower survey. We do another survey for firms for manpower requests, and in fact I think many businesses might start complaining that they are getting too many requests and too many forms to fill in and too many questions to answer, and that it is not really particularly commercially desirable. We aim to keep that bit obviously to a minimum and find out the information which we need in the most appropriate way.