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Employability Policies and the Quality at Work Agenda in the UK

This presentation examines the Employment Strategy and employability policies in the UK, with a focus on promoting a quality at work agenda. It discusses the priorities, challenges, and recent developments in employability policies and their impact on the labor market. The presentation also highlights the success and issues surrounding the New Deal program and the efforts to promote quality at work. It concludes with an assessment of the current situation and raises important questions for future research.

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Employability Policies and the Quality at Work Agenda in the UK

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  1. The EES and employability policies in the UK: towards a ‘quality at work’ agenda? Colin LindsayEmployment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh

  2. Structure of the presentation • The EES and employability policies in the UK • UK’s employability policies: priorities and results • Policies to promote quality at work agenda • Challenges for the quality at work agenda • Employability policies: recent developments • Implementing EES: conclusions and questions

  3. EES and employability policies in the UK • Key role of employability EES and UK policy • OMC: policy learning and legitimation • 2003 EES: ‘employability’ and quality at work • EES and UK policy: reinforcement not inspiration • EES and UK policy: one influence among many • Implementing EES and progress towards ‘quality’

  4. UK employability policies - New Deal • New Deal - 18-24, unemployed six months (1998) • Extended to: LTU; lone parents; partners; disabled • Previous approach - passive; ‘benefit policing’ by ‘signing on’; ‘stricter benefit regime’ (1986-97) • New Deal features: ‘Gateway’/Personal Adviser - client-centred approach; choice of training options; employment option/subsidy • Reflects EES focus on ‘fresh starts’ for young/LTU

  5. New Deal (Young People) - Results • 2002 target: 250,000; 257,000 by October 2001 • “Youth claimant LTU has been virtually eradicated” • Unemployment <45,000; employment >20,000 • 955,000 participants to end of 2003 • 40% job entry (30% unknown); 80% sustained • Positive impact of PAs/client-centred approach

  6. New Deal- Issues and problems • Declining job entry rates and ‘the revolving door’ - 20% of participants repeating • Tightening of sanctions and ‘unknown destinations’ • A ‘real work’ focus? 4% on employment subsidy • Low cost programme - low skills equilibrium • Geography of labour markets - demand problems?

  7. Promoting the ‘quality at work’ agenda • ‘Overarching theme’ of 2003 EES • Strong focus on lifelong learning/employability • Building on work-life policy agenda • Impacts on working time and leave policies • Childcare policy agenda gradually developed • Making work pay in the UK - NMW; WTC; CTC

  8. Challenges to the ‘quality at work’ agenda • Exclusion of young people from NMW and WTC • 250,000 young people on less than adult NMW • 1/4 working households <60% median income • Turnover: up to 40% in key service sectors • Insecurity: 2/5 JSA claimants repeating (6 mths) • Job seekers’ negative views of key service sectors

  9. Employability policies: recent reforms • StepUp (2002) • Piloting job guarantees and ILMs in 20 areas • Punitive workfare for New Deal ‘failures’? • Working Neighbourhoods (2004) • Area-based New Deal targeting 12 sub-regional areas • Revival of the ‘dependency culture’ thesis? • Employment Retention and Advancement (2004) • ‘Jobcentre Plus’ and ‘a Work First approach’

  10. The EES and employability policies • EES - validation not inspiration • OMC and ‘norm entrepreneurship’ • Mutual reinforcement of supply-side analysis • Shift towards ‘quality at work’ agenda • Continuing influence of: policy inheritance and institutions; policy choice and political change

  11. Conclusions… and questions • Welcome shift towards quality at work agenda • Apparent (limited) success of employability policies • Has New Deal reached its logical conclusion? • Labour market geography matters • Dependency culture: exploded myth re-assembled? • Low pay; insecurity; progression and advancement

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