Employment support in the UK needs a revamp.
The long-standing “Work First” approach, which places an emphasis on moving people into any job quickly, fails to equip benefit claimants with the knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to access good quality jobs and successfully navigate the changing labour market.
Not only does it lead to poor outcomes for individuals, our new research shows that employers are fed up with this blunt and outdated model. Instead, a much more ambitious and strategic approach, which includes learning and skills as a core component, is key, particularly as supporting people to progress in work rises up the agenda.
Investing in learning and skills for jobseekers: surely a no-brainer?
It's hard to argue against the idea that the benefits system could act as a valuable gateway to learning opportunities. Universal Credit – now the main benefit for people who are unemployed or on a low income - provides a potentially important mechanism for learning providers to connect with precisely those who are often excluded from opportunities to develop their skills.
Such opportunities are not only important for helping people to access work, especially in a context where employers cite skills shortages as the main factor underpinning recruitment challenges, they are also often key to progression to higher paid, better-quality jobs.
However, while there are some good examples of the employment support system facilitating access to learning, this only happens for a small minority of (potential) learners engaging with the benefits system. Only around 6 per cent of benefit spells include training (DfE/DWP, 2019). Recent research by the Work Foundation found benefit rules and Jobcentre Work Coaches are often not helpful when it comes to facilitating this.
Time to ditch Work First
Under a system that prioritises fast work (re-)entry, time spent learning and developing new skills is time not spent applying for and being available for work. However, such concerns are short-sighted: we know that alongside the many other benefits of learning, human capital development approaches which invest in training and skills for jobseekers have better long-term employment outcomes. While the DWP’s in work progression policy opens up much more scope to connect people with high quality learning opportunities, through extending support to people in work, the potential benefits of this will go unrealised if it’s an extension of the same old method (as I call it a ‘Work First, then Work More’ approach).
We need a step change in the approach to employment support policies and services. Opportunities to learn about new sectors, to access training and gain new qualifications, should be a key part of a more holistic, and ultimately more productive approach. Indeed, employers in our research advocated ditching the Work First model and instead placing more emphasis on training and longer-term career development. Had we invested in skills and training over the past decade, rather than wasting money on a costly and ineffective sanctioning regime, our economy would arguably be in a much better place.
Wanted: a smarter, joined up and strategic vision
Not only do policymakers need to recognise the value of learning to support work entry and progression, they also need a much smarter, joined up and strategic vision. Currently, different government departments think about employment and skills, and engage with employers in different ways. When skills policy is developed, benefit claimants are often an afterthought: tellingly, there was only one mention of Jobcentres in the recent Skills for Jobs White Paper.
Without improvements here, both learners and employers alike will continue to be left confused and frustrated by the fragmented employment and skills system. In our research, we found that employers’ attempts to get their heads around the various initiatives and programmes offered by Jobcentres and other providers (some long-standing, some time-limited, all with different conditions attached) were often abandoned.
To overcome this, we advocate a systems approach to employment and skills, which includes the development of a clear strategy for employer engagement and workforce development. As part of this, the DWP should work in partnership with and have shared objectives for workforce development with other Departments (including BEIS, DfE and the Treasury).
The strategic involvement of other policy stakeholders (including local government, employer representative organisations, unions and the wider employment and skills sector) at both local and national levels is also critical.
These shifts won’t happen overnight, but they are long overdue. The question is whether our policymakers are up to the challenge.
Dr Katy Jones is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Decent Work and Productivity at Manchester Metropolitan University