Skills for Work
Christopher Nunn
DWP International Unit
Department for Work & Pensions
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UK Overview (i)
• UK estimated population 62 million.
• Public spending by the UK's central government
departments, 2011-2012 - Approx £695bn.
• Department for Work and Pensions £167bn.
• Benefit Spending £159bn.
Department for Work & Pensions
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UK Overview (ii)- Main Working Age
Benefits
• Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) – Both income and
Contribution based
• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) - Both
income and Contribution based (limited to 365 days)
Department for Work & Pensions
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UK Overview (iii)- Main Working Age
Benefits
• Contributions through National Insurance.
• Not hypothecated.
• JSA Payment fixed, not based on former salary.
• €368 Per Month Approx.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Statistics
Employed
29.71 million
International Labour Organisation
All Unemployed
2.52 million
Jobseeker’s Allowance Claims
1.52 million
Inactive
9 million
International Labour Organisation
16-24 year old Unemployed
958,000
16-24 Excluding those in full-time education
668,000
Vacancies
503,000
Redundancies
140,000
March Labour Market Statistics (May 2013)
Department for Work & Pensions
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DWP and Jobcentre Plus
The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for welfare and
pension policy and is a key player in tackling child poverty. It is the
biggest public service delivery department in the UK and serves over 20
million customers.
Jobcentre Plus is part of the Department for Work and Pensions. It
provides services that support people of working age from welfare into
work, and helps employers to fill their vacancies.
Department for Work & Pensions
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DWP Policy Direction
• Reform of the benefit system and introduction of Universal Credit, to make
work pay. People expected to take opportunities offered.
• A clear strategy for supporting people into work, whether they need short
term or more intensive long term support.
• For people closer to the labour market, keeping them engaged in real work
with employers and active in their job search.
• Giving more responsibility to advisers to assess individual needs and offer
the right support.
• Giving more freedom to contracted providers, to make judgements about
how best to support jobseekers who need extra help.
• Working with partners to find new ways to help people back to work.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Skills and Benefits
• Evidence shows that the lower the qualification someone has, the lower their
chance of being employed. So some unemployed people on benefits are allowed
free training. This is funded by the Government’s Skills Funding Agency.
• Claimants of Job Seekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (WorkRelated Activities Group) are eligible for fully-funded training if an adviser decides it
would help them get work. Claimants don’t usually do a full qualification; they do
small units instead to improve their employability.
• The referral process:
Jobcentre Plus
adviser decides
claimant needs
training
Adviser sends
claimant to
college
College
interviews
claimant to
assess need
College
decide they
can help
College puts claimant on a course.
This includes employability skills and
vocational education.
Claimant stays on benefit and has to look for work
Department for Work & Pensions
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Claimant journey
Before the Work Programme
Work Programme
After the Work Programme
(Claim duration)
Adviser support
Adviser support
• Contracted provision
• Black box
• Maximum 2 years
• Cross benefit
• Minimum standards
Flexible
support
Support through flexible provision
Condition
Of being on
Benefit face to
face contact
Department for Work & Pensions
Fortnightly signing
Support through flexible provision
Policy is under development for
post-Work Programme support
Fortnightly signing
Fortnightly signing
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Before the Work Programme
• Jobcentre Plus managers and advisers given as much flexibility as possible.
• Advisers use their skills to give customers the help they need.
• Access to a £118m (€142m) Flexible Support Fund.
• Jobcentre Plus will be judged by its results not by its activity.
• A new way of supporting jobseekers consisting of
– Face to face meetings
– Flexible adviser support, and a menu of help for claimants.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Flexible menu of support
Skills
Basic Skills Support
Occupational Training:
Sector based work
academies
Peer Support
Mentors
Work Clubs
Work Experience
Internships
Work Experience
Mandatory Work Activity
Apprenticeships
Volunteering
Work Together
Enterprise
New Enterprise Allowance
(including mentoring and
financial support)
Enterprise clubs
Self-employment guidance
Jobsearch
Advisor Support
Job vacancies database
Online support
Careers Advice
JCP Group Sessions
Department for Work & Pensions
Flexible Support Fund
Discretionary funds
Support partnership
work to tackle
disadvantage.
European Social Fund
25% IB, IS volunteers
75% disadvantaged
families
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Skills Training helps people get jobs
• Employers have the job vacancies
and say the type of skills they need
from their prospective employees
• Jobcentre Plus has unemployed
people who either have those skills
or can be given training to get them
• Training providers deliver the
training
• Careers advisers help the process
along and in some places are
based in Jobcentre plus offices
• We expect people who agree to
training, to actually start the
training and not to drop out.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Levels of Skills Training
Higher Education Level 4 and
above
Higher Level Apprenticeship
Level 4 and above
Advanced Level
Apprenticeship Level 3
In-work training Level 2 and
above
Intermediate Level
Apprenticeship Level 2
Pre-employment training
Levels 1,2 or 3
Access to Apprenticeships
(16-24 year-olds) for those
below level 2
Employability skills Level 1
Basic skills Entry Level
Department for Work & Pensions
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Skills Training Offer
• Basic literacy and numeracy.
• English for speakers of other languages;
• short job-focused training;
• and support for those who are newly
redundant;
• first full NVQ Level Two (ESO) ; and
• a first full NVQ Level Three qualification
(bachillerato) for young adults aged 19- to
24-years-old.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Skills Conditionality
•Skills Conditionality is a process based on mandatory referrals to encourage
attendance and participation on skills provision.
•Skills Conditionality applies to claimants on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in the Work Related Activity Group
(WRAG).
•Where a JSA/ESA WRAG claimant is identified as having a skills need which
is the main barrier to them gaining employment they should be mandated to
attend provision to address these skills needs.
•Failure to attend, take part or complete this provision may result in a sanction
being applied to the claimant’s benefit.
Department for Work & Pensions
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The Work Programme
• A single programme for claimants.
• Contracted provision. £3-£5 million (€3.6 - €6 million) over life of
contracts (7 years).
• ‘Black box’ design: providers have the freedom to provide support
based on the needs of individuals.
• Payment largely through payments for keeping people in work for a
sustained period of time.
• Providers will be given longer to work with customers (for 2 years) so
that there is a real incentive to invest in customer support.
Department for Work & Pensions
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After the Work Programme
• For customers who require further support
as they reach the end of the Work
Programme.
• Aim: to have support in place by summer
2013 to when the first Work Programme
claimants finish their 2 years with
providers.
• Aim: to ensure that these claimants remain
engaged in meaningful activity and
continue to move closer to the labour
market.
Department for Work & Pensions
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The £1 billion (€1.2 billion) Youth
Contract
• 160,000 wage incentives - £2,275 (€2,730) to recruit a young person.
• Extra 250,000 Work Experience or sector-based work academy places over
the next three years, total of 100,000 or more a year.
• 20,000 extra incentive payments worth £1,500 (€1,800) each for employers
to take on young Apprentices, taking the total to 40,000.
• Extra support through Jobcentre Plus for all 18-24 year olds.
• Referral for a careers interview with the National Careers Service.
• £150 million (€180 million) to support the most disengaged 16-17 year olds.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Skills – Strategic Conclusion
• Skills have become the global currency of 21st century economies.
• Improving skills is essential to building sustainable growth and
stronger communities.
• A strong further education and skills system is fundamental to social
mobility.
• Employers drive skills demand – they should be leading or heavily
involved in the skills system.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Skills shortages
• Skills shortages can affect growth through their adverse effects on
labour productivity. At the firm level, shortages can affect the hiring
cost per skilled worker and hinder the adoption of new technologies.
• Identifying skills shortages is not easy - genuine skills shortages
exist when vacancies remain unfilled despite attractive working
conditions.
• Cyclical skills shortages: during growth, when unemployment is
low and the pool of available workers is reduced to a minimum.
• Structural skills shortages: when certain skills are not immediately
available in the labour market, even when unemployment is high
(e.g. when new technology is adopted).
Department for Work & Pensions
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Skills Mismatch
• Over-skilling: a worker whose skills are under-used. May lead to
skills loss and a waste of the resources used to acquire those skills
• Over-skilled workers are less satisfied, generating more staff
turnover and affecting productivity.
• Under-skilled workers lack the skills needed for their job, and affect
productivity.
• Skills policies should support employers in making better use of the
skills available to them. Relevant adult education and employerprovided training can help tackle skills mismatch, especially underskilling.
Department for Work & Pensions
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New and Emerging Skills
• Over the past 50 years there has been:
– a rise in the demand for non-routine cognitive & interpersonal skills;
– a decline in the demand for routine cognitive and craft skills, physical
labour and repetitive physical tasks.
• Current projections see this continuing.
• Employment among low-skilled workers will decline, while employment
among highly skilled workers is projected to increase, with a shift from
manufacturing to service-based economies.
• Very difficult to forecast skills needs beyond general trends – so it’s crucial
that education systems rapidly respond to new demands, which needs
involvement from employers in forecasting skills needs.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Department for Work & Pensions
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Addressing Skills Shortages
• Education and training systems need to have access to information
on the demand for skills and the drivers of changes in skills demand.
• Employers need to work with education and training systems to
provide that information and design training that meets their demand.
• A long-term perspective on skills development, even during
economic crisis, may reduce skills shortages and their impact on
economic growth.
• Facilitating entrance for skilled migrants can also help deal with skills
shortages in the short term if focused on occupations for which
vacancies are hard to fill.
Department for Work & Pensions
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Public Employment Service (PES) Role
• Skills strategy needs to be a collaborate approach, from demand, through
training design, to supply. PES can contribute to the overall strategy in
various ways, depending on institutional configuration in each country. In
many cases it will be supplying clients to appropriate training.
Examples
• The PES can work with employers to understand what they are looking for in
the labour market – both nationally and locally - and tailor their services to
clients and the training offered/bought accordingly.
• The PES can work with individuals to understand their skills, understand
what work they are looking for and whether they have the right skills for the
job – especially basic employability skills for those furthest from the labour
market.
• Effective co-operation with other Ministries (e.g. education, industry), training
institutions and businesses is crucial.
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