As part of our daily insights Podcast Series, Business News Wales Editor, Mark Powney spoke to Darren Jones, Partnerships Manager at Open University.

Skill shortages are costing Welsh organisations over £155 million pounds according to a new report that monitors the business landscape of Wales and the rest of the UK.

The Open University Business Barometer reveals that that nearly three quarters of Welsh organisations can’t fill roles as they would like to with managerial roles the hardest to fill.

Listen Below

In this interview, Darren talks about the future of training, how businesses can find and keep candidates and more.

About Darren

Darren joined the OU in November 2016 as the GO-Wales Employability coordinator. He previously worked with Communities for Work, supporting adults and young people not in education, employment or training into work, and spent 14 years with the Communities First programme. This was his

favourite project so far, and it involved reopening a community cinema and convincing the BBC’s X-Ray TV show to cover the rebirth of this iconic building…. and even recruiting Hollywood stars Michael Sheen and Mathew Rhys to the cause!

Darren is passionate about helping learners of all ages to improve their life chances by securing sustainable and meaningful employment. He has helped over 600 people into work in his professional life since 2008, and he says “the moment when someone you have been working with, it could be for a few weeks or in some cases a few years, tells you they’ve ‘got that job’, well it’s just the best feeling in the world.”