Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

ESRC Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills to conduct a second survey on the skills of the employed British workforce. The Skills Survey, 2001 surveyed individuals in employment aged 20 to 60 in Britain. The focus of the survey was the skills that individuals use in their jobs, and its major purpose was to measure how those skills are utilised in British workplaces. It also aimed to enable analyses of the relationship of skills with individual and job characteristics, and of the association of skills with labour market rewards. As well as being representative of the point in time at which the study was undertaken, another aim of the research was to track changes over time, using previous studies in which the research team had been involved. The survey thereby enabled an updating of the picture of the distribution and trend of broad skill requirements, and for the first time gave measures of the trends in utilisation of generic skills. The survey extended the work of the Skills Survey, 1997 (held at the UKDA under SN 3993) by including a richer set of measures of other aspects of job quality that allowed comparisons with the Employment in Britain Survey, 1992 (held at the UKDA under 5368).


Main Topics:

The questionnaire covers:

• employment
• skills
• detailed job analysis
• computing skills
• educational achievements
• organisations
• pay
• skills held five years ago
• change in the past five years
• demographic characteristics