MD2357 Burning Glass Job Vacancy Data

The GLA wishes to extend its licence to purchase Labour Insight, a software package produced by Burning Glass Technologies (BGT), which provides access to quarterly data feeds on job vacancies for London. The first year’s supply of data was approved though Director’s Decision DD1459, and the previous extension was approved through Director’s Decision DD2135.

The data provided by BGT will be presented on the forthcoming GLA Skills & Employment Knowledge Hub. The Knowledge Hub will improve access to information to support learners, employers and providers in London to make informed decisions about training. It will be an online platform which will gather, publish and present relevant data at regional and sub-regional level.

The licence will also continue to provide a useful resource for the Skills & Employment Unit, GLA Economics and external stakeholders to understand demand in London’s labour market. The data will be used by GLA officers to deliver the Mayor’s skills and economic development strategies, and in preparations for the devolution of the Adult Education Budget.

Since 2012, BGT has sourced London (and UK) job postings daily from thousands of sites using Al ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’ to crawl the web to look for jobs. No single job site accounts for more than a few percent of the data feed, which includes data from employers-own websites, those posted on Government sites such as Universal Jobmatch and the Apprenticeship Service, as well as those posted by agencies and on job boards. BGT is uniquely placed to provide timely data on job postings that includes information on: standardised industry (SIC) codes, standardised occupation (5CC) codes, location at Local Authority level, salary, qualification requirements, contract-type and job—type.

BGT has also offered to resource work with the GLA to adapt the data and software to better meet Mayoral objectives. As well as the supply of data, this will provide an opportunity to explore how Labour Insight could help to deliver the GLA’s aim to provide data on how labour demand matches up to skills provision in London as outlined in the Skills for Londoners Strategy.

Single source justification is being sought to support the continuation of the GLA’s licence with BGT, based on the grounds for exemption set out in the GLA Contracts and Funding Code, as ‘previous involvement in a specific current project or continuation of existing work that cannot be separated from the new project/work’

The GLA wishes to extend the licence to purchase Labour Insights, which is software providing access to quarterly data feeds on job vacancies for London produced by BGT.

It will enable access to timely data on job postings for vacancies available in London, which can be broken down by a number of variables such as: qualifications/skills, occupation, sector, job type, source of advert, pay and low-level geography.

The data will contribute to the forthcoming Skills & Employment Knowledge Hub. The Mayor’s skills strategy sets out plans for the Knowledge Hub to provide regularly updated data on the skills employers need, and information on the availability and quality of further education in providing learners with the skills they need to succeed. This will allow the GLA to work collaboratively with adult education and apprenticeship providers to use improved data on employer skills needs and social objectives to better align provision and commission programmes that will help to create a pipeline of skilled Londoners who can make the most of London’s social and economic opportunities. It will also provide a useful resource for learners to make informed choices and other stakeholders to get a better understanding of skills demand and provision in the capital. In addition to supplying the Labour Insight job vacancy data, BGT has committed to working with the GLA to explore how the data it provides can meet the objectives of the Knowledge Hub.

The Labour Insight data provided by BGT will be used by GLA officers to deliver other objectives in the Mayor’s skills and economic development strategies, and in preparations for the devolution of the Adult Education Budget. GLA officers will also work with BGT to explore how it can be used to support the forthcoming Skills and Employment Knowledge Hub by providing data on how skill provision matches up to labour demand in London.

The data produced through use of the software will also be published on the London Datastore to assist skills stakeholders and providers across the region in identifying skills needs through published vacancy data.

Officers confirm that the procurement and commissioning of the activities described above will conform with requirements made under the Public Sector Equality Duty, and that any increased knowledge of skills and employability needs of particular learner groups will be used to inform future specifications for work.

The data will inform the work of the Mayor’s forthcoming Skills for Londoners Business Partnership Board. The Business Partnership Board will advise on how to improve and align skills provision to meet skills needs in London. As part of this work, the board will review, contextualise and endorse skills data to inform skills provision and learner decisions, and this data will support the board to understand changing employer demand.

The data produced through use of the software will assist skills stakeholders and providers across the region in identifying skills needs through published vacancy data.

The data will be made available publicly through the London Data Store¸ which is the Mayor’s free and open data-sharing portal where anyone can access data relating to the capital.

The supplier has also agreed to work with GLA officers to adapt the product to better meet Mayoral objectives, including the provision of data on how skills provision matches up to labour demand in London.

Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £75,000 to extend the Labour Insight licence for a further 12 months.

The expenditure will be funded from the 2018-19 Skills Strategy Budget within the Skills and Employment Unit.

This will bring the total spend to date up to £225,000. Full spend to date is as follows:

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

(a) the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and

(b) in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

- pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
- consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
- consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report..

Section 9 of the Contracts and Funding Code (the ‘Code’) requires the GLA to call off the services required from an accessible framework or conduct an advertised tender for the services required. However, the Mayor may approve an exemption from this requirement under section 10 of the Code upon certain specified grounds. One of those grounds is that approval of the exemption is justified due to previous involvement in a specific current project or continuation of existing work that cannot be separated from the new project. Officers have indicated at section 1 of this report that this ground applies. On this basis the Mayor may approve the proposed exemption if satisfied with the content of this report.

Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the proposed service provider(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the required services.